Dragon Ball AG: Saga 7 - A Promise of Nightmares
by Connor J. Nagi
Summary: PART 7 / After becoming the World Champion, Noca has returned to a normal life. He has a job and he is now living with Pan, the love of his life, in West City. Things are changing for the better. But the threats keep coming and Noca is constantly reminded of his past and the danger he puts everybody in, simply by being in their presence. Lots of OCs
1. Chapter 1: Making a Withdrawal

_**Previously on Dragon Ball AG: Saga 6 – The Warrior's Path…**_

_Noca went to space! Not just that, but space came to Earth in the form of the God of Destruction, Beerus, along with his Angel friend, Whis. And, believe it or not, Freeza was brought back to life and returned to Earth to seek revenge, only to be killed again. This time it was Vegeta who was able to strike the killing blow._

_Back out in Space though, Noca made some new friends and we got to learn a little bit about their backstory, and their ties to the evil being in the shadows. Kuyato was his name, and he was gradually returning to the height of his power. _

_But back on Earth, the World Martial Arts Tournament took place, yet again. And this time, after making it to the final for a second time, Noca was able to finish his fight and win. But there are many things building behind the scenes that Noca and his friends are unaware of. How will all of these things play out? Read on and find out…_

* * *

_**Chapter 1: Making A Withdrawal**_

A beautiful landscape lay before a lone wanderer. Walking through the tall grass with nothing but a sword in his hand, a long-haired man looked around his surroundings. In the distance were huge mountains, the highest peak up above the clouds and hidden from the man's eyes. A glistening river ran all the way towards the mountain. The water a crystal-clear blue, the sun reflected in the flow. The man stopped, looking back on where he had come from. His path clear through the tall grass. The fields of green stretched for miles, with a small town visible in the distance. The safety of that town was now behind the man as he strode onwards to the next big battle. His journey was just beginning.

He continued walking a little longer. The sun was beginning to set, and darkness was growing. There was no time to take a break. This journey and his mission were far too important. He needed to find the one who would show him the way to become the strongest.

As the sun finally set behind the mountains the man was surrounded by darkness. Suddenly the beauty of his environment was hidden, and a fear swept over him. He couldn't quite place just why, but he knew he wasn't alone.

He was right.

A large fire sprung up less than thirty feet ahead of him and in front of the fire sprung up several demonic creatures, wielding swords, axes, hammers, and a multitude of other weapons. The man held up his sword and narrowed his sights on the first enemy. He drew up the power within and leapt forward, plunging his sword through the gut of the first demon. He pulled the sword out and swung for the next enemy, separating their head from their shoulders and watching the body crumple to the ground.

He cut through two more enemies as some more swarmed around him. He had to chop and slice his way through these demons and break out to gain some distance and reassess his situation. The man felt a swell of power and there was a glint of light in the corner of his eye. He looked down at his left hand and saw it glowing with a green energy. He smirked, sheathed his sword on his back, brought up both his hands and clenched them into fists. He had gathered enough energy.

He yelled and ran forward, ripping through all the enemies. All the demons were dealt with in a swift moment of pure power. The man dropped the last enemy and looked around as their bodies vanished, leaving behind small yellow light orbs on that ground, which all immediately drew into the man as a title popped up above his head. The title read LEVEL 18 but the 18 changed to a 19 with a triumphant tune playing.

"**Man, I love this game…"** Noca said, leaning back on the sofa in his apartment living room and smiling at the large television screen, game controller in hand.

_Monday 7__th__ November Age 797_

He chuckled to himself and leaned forward again, continuing to play. Noca's hair was a mess, with some gaming headphones covering his ears. He was wearing a baggy t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Noca also still wore a cast on his left wrist from when he broke it fighting in the tournament. It would have probably healed by now if Noca hadn't aggravated it in a sparring session with Vegeta, twice.

There was a little bit of light peeking in from behind the curtains and the digital Capsule Corp. clock on the wall displayed 08:20 a.m. Noca wasn't paying the clock any attention, his eyes fully focussed towards the game he was playing.

The living room was very tidy and modern. There was a dining area just behind the sofa and along from that there was a large modern kitchen. This entire part of the apartment was all open plan, but it led onto a hallway and that led to the other rooms. The master bedroom, a second bedroom, which was rented by Dom, and used whenever he wasn't staying with Bra. There was a third room which served as an office/working space which also had a sofa which became a bed whenever someone else would stay, like Rei. Then there was a bathroom, and a closet.

It was a nice apartment, clean and tidy. There were photos up on the walls of Noca and Pan, with their friends and family members. A photo on the table beside the sofa featured Noca and Pan in front of a cake that said "Happy 19th Birthday" with the couple appearing to be happy and smiling.

There were a few photos on the wall featuring Noca celebrating his tournament victory, and some other family related things. Another feature of the apartment was sat beside Noca on the sofa. And it wasn't so much a feature, but more of a new addition to the family. Something to make this fairly new apartment feel like more of a home. Noca and Pan had gotten themselves a cat. A ginger tabby cat that lay beside the young Saiyan man. It was curled up, asleep but started to stretch and move, sitting up. The cat yawned and started licking its paw, scrubbing its face a couple of time and then quickly scratching itself behind the ear.

The cat looked around and jumped down off of the sofa, walking across the apartment towards the hallway. It made its way towards one of the doors, specifically one that was sitting just ajar. The cat poked through and entered the master bedroom. It jumped up on the bed and walked up to a sleeping Pan, rubbing its head on her face.

Pan started to twitch and slowly opened her eyes. She took a second to adjust to having a ball of fur sitting right in front of her face.

"**Oh, morning to you too, Jessie,"** Pan said, as she started to sit up, stretching her arms and yawning, waking up her whole body. She blinked a couple of times and looked to her left, noticing that the other side of the bed was empty. It didn't even look like Noca had been to bed. His pillows looked untouched. Pan's brow furrowed as she checked her capsule watch, seeing the time. **"Shit, I'm gonna be late."**

Pan jumped up out of the bed and rushed into the bathroom, proceeding to very quickly brush her teeth and wash her face. She rushed back into the bedroom, drying her face. She threw the towel down, changed out of her pyjamas and threw on some comfortable clothes. A pair of jogging bottoms and a random t-shirt out of her drawer. She tied her hair back, sprayed on some deodorant, a little perfume and rushed out into the living room.

She saw Noca, perched on the sofa, eyes fixed on his game. Pan shook her head and rushed to grab her bag from the dining table. She threw her books and laptop in the bag and quickly rushed to the fridge, taking a bottle of water, and also made sure to grab some fruit from the bowl so she had something to eat before her lecture. As she was putting on her hooded jacket, she realised that Noca hadn't turned away from the game. He didn't even notice her.

"**Have you playing that game all night?"** She asked, sounding more concerned as opposed to being angry. But Noca didn't respond. Pan frowned. **"Noca?" **She said with more ferocity, putting some of her Ki into it. That was enough to resonate with her oblivious boyfriend. He paused the game and took off his headphone, turning around to face her.

"**Oh, hi, didn't know you were there,"** Noca said, awkwardly. Pan frowned again.

"**Oh, hi? Really?"** Pan questioned. Noca seemed confused for a brief moment but quickly picked up on it.

"**Oh, sorry,"** He said chuckling, before turning all innocent, **"I meant good morning, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?"**

Pan raised her eyebrow and looked back at him, he just sent back a toothy grin. Pan chuckled.

"**Yeah, too well. I overslept a little and now I need to rush off,"** She said, walking over to Noca and planting a kiss on his lips. **"You're going to be exhausted for work."**

"**Nah, I'll be fine, this game is so good. Is Rei still coming over this weekend?"** Noca asked as Pan started to head for the door.

"**Yeah, should be,"** She replied, backing up to the door. **"Please remember to feed Jessie before you go to work, ok?"**

"**Rei is gonna love this game,"** Noca said turning back to the TV and turning it off. He stood up and looked over to the cat sitting next to the food bowl on the floor. **"Yeah, I'll feed her," **Noca replied. He looked back up at Pan. **"Have a good day,"** he said, smiling and blowing a kiss.

"**Yeah, you too,"** Pan said, smiling and turning around, opening the door and leaving Noca alone with the cat. The Saiyan man looked at his watch and back to the cat.

"**I better feed you now, huh?"** Noca questioned. The cat let out a meow and Noca chuckled to himself, heading to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Pan had just exited their building and threw down a capsule which turned into her capsule car, so she could drive to her University. She walked around the vehicle onto the road so she could get in on the driver's side but just as she went to open the door, she sensed movement coming her way. She looked up and moved quick enough to avoid a small lorry that was zooming along. She narrowly avoided being hit.

"**Watch where you're going, asshole! This is a residential area!"** Pan yelled up the road as the lorry turned a corner and was gone. On top of waking up late, and being in a rush, Pan was furious at the dangerous driving of that person. She took a second to calm down and looked over to her building, seeing an older woman by the door, looking on with a surprised look. **"Good morning, Mrs. Wu."**

Pan smiled awkwardly and waved before diving into her car and finally going on her way. She arrived at her usual meeting spot just inside her campus, capsulised her car and met with her friends. There was a brunette girl, that was Pan's friend from college, her name was Lisa. And there was another girl, with a pixie cut, dyed blue, that was Sakura.

"**Hi, sorry, I woke up late,"** Pan said, rushing up to them.

"**It's cool, we still have enough time,"** Lisa reassured her.

"**Here,"** said Sakura, holding out a coffee and bagel for Pan. **"Got these for you while we were waiting."**

"**Oh, thanks, you're a lifesaver, I'm so hungry," **Pan said, accepting the coffee and bagel. The girls head off to their lecture hall. They were there right on time and took their regular seats, taking out their laptops, ready to take plenty of notes and learn.

Pan managed to get to university on time and was comfortably was sitting in her lecture with her coffee and bagel, ready for a day of learning. Meanwhile, Noca was at home. He had just got out of the shower and was throwing on some clothes for work. Specifically, his Capsule Corp. security uniform. It wasn't a bad uniform, made him seem a little important. A white shirt, with a navy-blue tie, and pair of trousers. He chose to wear black shoes with the suit. And then, the jacket would be dependent on if he would be inside or out. For inside, a navy-blue blazer with the Capsule Corp. logo. The logo was also on the shirt. If he were outside, he would be wearing a high visibility jacket.

The uniform choices didn't bother Noca, and the job wasn't too much of a bother either. It required him to sit at a desk in a sort of control room, watching screens, and sometimes patrolling the grounds. It was a calm job and for Noca, it was just a way to keep steady money coming into his household. Especially as he had his own home. It was certainly needed.

Plus, they had a pet to feed. Speaking of which, Noca finished putting on his shoes and walked out into the kitchen. He opened the cupboard where the cat food was kept, and instantly, the cat knew what was going on. She ran up to Noca and started rubbing her head on his leg.

"**Alright, calm down, I'm feeding you,"** Noca said, taking out the packet and picking up the cat food bowl. He washed the bowl up and put the food in but didn't put it down on the floor right away. He stared at the cat as she looked up at him and licked her lips. **"What do you want?"**

The cat continued to stare. Noca tilted his head and raised both eyebrows.

"**What do you want? Go on, ask for it,"** Noca asked again, continuing to look Jessie in the eyes. The cat let out a small meow and Noca thought that was good enough. He set the bowl down and went to the fridge, taking out one of his premade protein drinks. He looked to the clock and saw he had about twenty minutes before he needed to start work. He decided there was enough time for a snack. He took a couple of things from the cupboard and stood at the kitchen counter, just eating away and watching the clock tick down. It was getting closer and closer to the hour.

Noca grabbed his jacket, that was hanging up by the door and stood there for second. He looked at his watch. Two minutes until he needed to be starting work. He looked back over to the cat, casually having a drink of water.

"**Ok, Jessie. You be good,"** Noca said, raising two fingers to his forehead and focussing his energy. A snap second later he was appearing at Capsule Corp., already inside the security control centre. There was a man, half asleep at the computer already, wearing the same uniform as Noca. He was noticeably much older. **"Morning, Tanaka."**

The man woke up and swung around in his chair.

"**Don't startle me like that, Noca,"** The man said, he had a bit of a gruff voice. **"One of these days you're gonna give me a heart attack, you keep doing that."**

Noca chuckled as the man stood up, putting his jacket on and clocking out.

"**She's all yours for the next eight hours. Robbie's working tonight,"** Tanaka said, already half-way out of the door.

"**Great, have a nice rest. Say hey to the wife for me,"** Noca called out to Tanaka, before signing into the computer and checking all the screens, making sure everything was good around the compound. Not a problem in sight. Noca turned around in his chair to see that the security room coffee machine was still out of order. A compound full of scientists and nobody had been down to repair the machine in nearly a month. Noca groaned to himself and got up, leaving the security room. He decided that while he went to get himself a cup of coffee, he could use it as a chance to do his routine walk around, and say hello to Dom and Bra, whom were typically in the lab at this time on a Monday morning.

He could monitor everything just fine through his watch, plus nothing ever seemed to go wrong at the compound anyway, so it was no worry. He immediately went to the lab, knowing that they had the best coffee machine in there.

"**Hello,"** Noca said immediately, poking his head inside and seeing that both Bra and Dom were looking over some sort of robotic arm thing. **"What's happening?"**

Dom looked up, happy to see his friend, but Bra just waved him off, clearly focussing on something.

"**Good morning, Noca. How was your weekend?"** Dom asked, turning away from the table and going over to get a coffee with Noca.

"**Oh, you know, can't complain. I've been playing that new game, The Warrior King,"** Noca replied, while getting his coffee from the machine. **"I spent most of the weekend with that, Pan was working on essays anyway, so, I had time."**

"**I've really wanted to play that game, is it good?"** Dom asked, grabbing himself a coffee.

"**Well, I played it for like thirteen hours straight last night so, I think so,"** Noca said as he walked back over to the table with Dom. **"Rei is coming to stay this weekend so I can't wait to show it to him, I know he'll love it, hey Bra."**

Bra stood up from the table, setting down the tool she was using, and sighed.

"**Hi, Noca, sorry. We're a little bit busy right now,"** She said, appearing to be a little bit stressed. Noca stepped back, chuckling.

"**Ok, sorry, what are you working on?"** Noca asked, looking over the table.

"**Just some robotics stuff, trying to improve some of the mechanics inside this thing,"** Bra mentioned as she looked through the schematics of some robot design. Noca couldn't make sense of it from a slight glance and decided not to dwell on it.

"**Sounds interesting, is this for your course or some sort of personal project?"** Noca asked them both.

"**Oh, uh… it's a personal project, kinda, it's a Capsule Corp. thing,"** Dom explained, seeing as Bra was more focussed on actually doing some work. Dom saw she was engrossed by trying to sort something out and clocked on that it wasn't really time for socialising. He turned back to Noca. **"I'll be free around 3pm if you get a chance to come talk then. Bra's right, we are busy now."**

"**That's find, I only came for the coffee anyway, the machine down there is still broken,"** Noca explained, as he backed towards the exit. **"Guess I'll drop by later then."**

Noca headed out of the lab and back to his control centre. He took his seat behind the computer and the many screens he could monitor at once and leaned back in the chair. He was happy that his job only required him to handle the security of the actual lab parts of the compound, as opposed to the residential area. That way there was no chance of bumping into Vegeta who would only be interested in sparring, even though Noca still had his wrist injury healing. Bulma still wouldn't let him just use a Senzu bean for it. Something about the bone needing to heal properly.

Noca didn't mind too much. He was happy to have a relaxing job. Sometimes he did wish that his days wouldn't be so boring though.

* * *

On the opposite side of West City from the Capsule Corp. compound, in the financial district, nearby to West City University, there was a bank. Soniso Bank. It wasn't really a very large bank, especially compared to the others in the financial district. It always appeared to be more of a family bank. The building was only three stories tall. It was, however, still a reasonably busy bank, there would be a few people going in there at that time of a Monday morning, mostly people that worked in and around the financial district, even some students that needed to deal with any of their loan payments or things like that. Either way, it was a business day.

Around the back of the bank, there was a staff parking area. There were a couple of security guards around there. One at the entrance to the car park, and one at the rear staff entrance. A small red capsule car pulled up to the entrance to the car park and the guard walked up to the vehicle. He greeted the woman driving and then let her into the car park, pressing the button for the gate to open. She then parked up and walked up to the back entrance and was let in by the guard after showing an ID card. Fairly simple stuff. Just a normal routine for the guards and the employees.

A black capsule SUV pulled up to the barrier and the guard stopped them and walked up to the window. It didn't roll down right away. The man knocked on the window.

"**Excuse me, could you please roll down your window,"** He asked politely. The windows were tinted so he was unable to see inside the vehicle.

Around the front of the bank, a small lorry quickly pulled up, slamming on the breaks. Nobody got out. But the driver, pulled out a communication device and spoke into it.

"**Now,"** was the only thing he said.

Back around at the staff entrance, the guard at the barrier was still standing by the SUV. He knocked on the window again.

"**I'm not going to ask again, either roll down your window and present some ID, or turn your vehicle around,"** The guard asked. The window started to roll down and the guard appeared relieved. **"Ok, that's better."**

He looked into the vehicle, greeted only by a man wearing a weird black mask that completely covered his head.

"**What the…"** the guard said, cut off as the driver pulled out a silenced pistol and shot him right through the head. The guard fell to the ground and the other guard at the staff entrance walked forward, seeing his colleague drop to the ground.

"**Hey, what's going on?"** He yelled, pulling out a pistol for protection only to be shot by another masked man who stepped out of the other side of the SUV. A man opened the barrier and they drove into the car park. Six men in total stepped out of the vehicle, one of them appeared to be bigger and more muscular than the rest and he wasn't carrying a weapon. The other five, however, all had rifles. They rushed towards the door but kept quiet. Two of them stayed on watch as the other three rifle men entered with their unarmed partner.

On the other side, outside the front of the bank, the man in the driver's seat received a communication.

"**We're in."**

The driver put down the communicator and bashed on the back of the truck, alerting the men in the back. Just then another six men jumped out of the back, all them currently wearing trench coats as they rushed up towards the bank. The driver made a bit of a scene as he drove off rapidly, almost hitting some pedestrians, taking the attention away from the six men as they entered the front of the bank.

As they all got inside one of them locked the door behind and another one fired a gun in the air, getting the attention of everyone inside. They had all thrown off their trench coats at this point.

"**Nobody move a muscle, or you will be shot!"** One of them shouted as he pushed customers to the ground and some of the men aimed their weapons at the tellers behind the counters. There was a security guard by the door, but he was very quickly shot dead.

The customers panicked and all obliged, dropping to the ground. One of the staff members attempted to run out to the back but the other men were inside and stopped him. The other three gunmen joined, putting the total inside the building up to nine. Ten if you include the large man without a weapon.

The large man looked around at the staff, and at the customers.

"**Gather all the customers and put them against that wall, make sure their hands are bound,"** He ordered, asserting that he was in charge of the situation. Three of the men dealt with the hostages. Two men stayed by the front door, keeping an eye out in case the authorities came. Three stayed with their weapons on the employees, and the last gunman stayed beside the leader.

"**What do you want with us?!"** One of the employees yelled out. The large man turned towards them and walked up to the person who spoke out. They were behind glass, bulletproof glass at that. The man who spoke out stood strong, but there was clearly fear and panic in his eyes.

"**Are you the manager?"** The large man asked. There was a modulator on his voice so it would be impossible to identify anyone.

"**No, the manager isn't here today,"** The man answered, through stutters. The large man tilted his head, still appearing to be looking at that employee. **"Do you want money? We can give you the cash from the drawer, but that's it. No one else is authorised to go down to the vault."**

"**We don't want your money, and you're lying to me,"** The large man replied. The employee seemed to panic. He thought it would be as easy as that, but apparently not. **"Which one of you is the manager?"**

Nobody speaks up. The large man nodded and turned to the gunman beside him.

"**Grab one of the hostages,"** he ordered. The gunman walked over to the group and picked up a middle-aged man. The woman beside him tried to pull him back but one of the other gunmen knocked her down into the ground. The hostage struggled but he was quickly pushed down on his knees in front of the leader. He slowly looked up as the large man leaned down and lifted that man up, by holding him around the neck.

The hostages started to murmur but were quickly told to shut up. Even the employees seemed to want to do something. The hostage being held up by the leader was having a hard time breathing and one of the employees could tell, and they wanted to do something.

"**You don't need the manager to enter the vault!"** a young female yelled out. The employee who had been doing the speaking thus far turned to her.

"**You stupid girl. What are you doing?"** He yelled at her.

"**They're going to kill him!"** She yelled back at the man. The male employee seemed to panic and rushed to one of the desks, reaching for a button. A gunman aimed at him.

"**I wouldn't press that,"** The gunman said.

"**Or what? That's bulletproof glass. You can't hurt me,"** the employee said back, believing he had the upper hand. The leader, still holding the hostage, walked up to the glass looking in at the employee.

"**You press that, and I'll kill the hostages,"** the leader threatened. **"Let one of your employees out so they can help us get into the vault, please."**

The man behind the counter scoffed and slammed his hand on the button, triggering the silent alarm that would alert the authorities. As soon as he hit the button the leader crushed the throat of the hostage, dropping his body to the floor.

"**I want this to be easy,"** The leader said, stepping forward and thrusting his hand right through the glass, reaching in and grabbing the employee, pulling him out and slamming him down on his knee, breaking the employee's spine. Everyone was reacting and making lots of noise, crying, screaming, panicking. The leader screamed out to silence them. **"QUIET!"**

They all fell silent. The leader turned around and walked up to the secure door that led to behind the counters and ripped it open.

"**I didn't want to do things this way, but I am left with no choice. Who volunteers to help us get into your maximum-security vault?"** The leader questioned, hoping somebody would step up. And step up somebody did. A bald man wearing glasses stepped out, sheepishly.

"**I… I'll help,"** He stammered. The leader nodded and placed a hand on the employee's shoulder. He clearly flinched but no injury came his way.

"**Was that so hard? Now, lead the way."** The leader ordered. He looked to the gunman that had been by his side. **"You, with me."**

One of the gunmen by the door turned around.

"**What do we do when the authorities arrive?"**

The leader stopped.

"**Anybody who tries to enter the building is to be shot dead. And send a message to our men at the back, tell them the same thing,"** The leader commanded before walking off down the hall with his hostage and gunman. The trio enter a lift at the end of the hall and the employee takes out a key and uses it to get the lift moving. It starts to go down.

Meanwhile, around the back of the bank, some police were starting to show up. Only a couple of squad cars with two policemen each. Clearly just the officers closest to the scene. They took cover behind their vehicles and started firing on the two men by the door. Another man had come out to assist in defending the bank and keeping the officers at bay. The four officers were taken down quickly, but more were sure to be on the way.

Back inside as the lift reached the bottom floor and opened up on a clear, brightly lit hallway that led to a large metal door, with a keypad and computer system on the wall. The gunman held his gun in the employee's back as they walked forward.

"**You are to open the door, as normal, no funny business. Then I will go inside and get what I need,"** The leader explained.

"**And what is it you need?"** The employee asked. The gunman promptly jabbed him with the gun.

"**No questions!"** He said. The employee apologised and walked up to the door, typing in his password, but as soon as he did another message came up and the light in the hallway went red. **"What's happening?"**

"**This is normal,"** The employee said, the gunman held the gun to his head.

"**Liar!"**

"**Trust me, I'm not lying. This is normal,"** The employee repeated, hoping his word would be enough to assure them. The leader seemed calm.

"**Just get the door open,"** He ordered. The employee nodded and got to work on the computer again. Apparently, there were a lot of codes needed. And a key. And a retina scan. And a fingerprint recognition. And a vocal recognition. Whatever was being protected inside this vault was extremely important to someone. There were certainly more than meets the eye when it came to this seemingly small, family bank.

More police had been arriving outside the bank while this was happening and a proper shootout was taking place, but the gunmen had an advantage due to being inside. And they seemed to have more advanced weapons and considering there were hostages the police didn't want to accidently kill any innocent people.

The vault doors finally opened, and the large men stepped through. He turned back to the gunman and the employee.

"**I'll do this part alone. I know what I'm looking for,"** He said, walking on and disappearing into the vault. The man at the computer looked over to the gunman and stayed still, against the wall.

The large man wandered through, deep into the vault. It was huge. With lots of safety deposit boxes, storage units, smaller vaults of all different styles. It was like one of those big storage unit rental places. Whatever was stored in this vault was extremely valuable to whoever stored stuff in it. The large man pulled out a device that seemed to be some sort of locator and it would beep faster or slower depending on his distance from whatever he was looking for.

Back at the vault entrance, the employee was looking the gunman up and down and noticed a silence pistol holstered at his side, the man keeping his rifle aimed true. The employee took a few deep breaths and moved quickly, rushing forward, punching the gunman in the stomach, at the same time taking a shot in the shoulder, but he managed to grab the pistol and shoot the gunman in the chest a couple of times. The gunman instantly dropped to the ground and started to bleed out. The employee dropped the gun and rushed to the computer.

He managed to get the camera system up on the screen and located the camera in that hallway. He then moved over to the gunman, removed his mask and positioned him so the camera could clearly see his face. He rushed back to the computer, made sure the lights went back to white rather than red, so everything was clear. He pulled up the security camera program again, the Capsule Corp. logo popped up in the bottom right corner. The man quickly found a link to send all the security camera footage to someone and did so. Just as it finished sending, he cheered quietly to himself but was quickly shot in the back as the gunman turned around and moved to put his mask back on before finally bleeding out and dying.

Inside the vault, the leader finally found what he was looking for. It was one of the most modern of the vaults and he walked up to it, finding the keypad. He typed in a code and the vault started to open, revealing what was hidden inside. In the middle of the vault there was a weird table and on top of it, standing up, was a tube. Probably little more than a foot long and about half a foot wide. Inside it appeared to be some sort of green chemical. The large man looked at it and pulled out his communicator again.

"**Sir. I found it,"** the leader said, the person on the other end responded, also with a modulated voice.

"**Well done. Now, leave as quickly as you can and leave no trace behind. Destroy it all, then meet up with the other three and prepare for the next operation,"** The voice ordered.

"**Yes, sir."** The leader changed to channel on the communicator so he could get in touch with his gunmen. **"All men, head towards the back exit. Wait for me there."**

The man rushed out of the vault and immediately saw the dead employee, and his dead gunman. He shook his head and continued on, leaving them. He walked up and saw the hostage and clerks lined up against the wall, three gunmen still on them all. The leader turned to the gunmen.

"**Are you three SUI trained?"** He asked them. They all confirmed they were. **"Good. You two, go down to the vault and spread out. You. Stay here with them. Wait for my order."**

They saluted and the leader saluted back before rushing out of the back. He ordered his men into the back of the lorry and the vehicle quickly pulled away.

The two men down in the vault found their position. One of them stayed by the entrance and the other went deep inside. The one up top just stood in the middle and set his gun down. The hostages and clerks were confused.

"**Are you in position?"** The leader asked, through the comms. He received his confirmation from all three of them. **"Good. Then blow it."**

All three of the men, in their different locations, started to glow a fiery red. Some police came through the entrance, some rushed through the back, but they couldn't stop what happened next. All three of the gunmen left behind simultaneously exploded with a massive burst of energy and the entire bank, including the underground vault was incinerated, leaving nothing. The explosion was huge and heard all across the city. Surrounding building were damaged by the wave of the explosion.

Over in West City University the entire campus shook, and the explosion was heard as clear as day. Some of the windows even shattered. Students instantly hit the deck, but Pan was right to her feet, standing in front of her friends for protection.

Across the city at the compound, Noca heard the explosion too. He rushed out of his security room and into Bra's lab.

"**Did you guys hear that?"** He asked. They both confirmed they did. Dom quickly turned on the TV and there was news about a hostage situation at the Soniso bank. Noca immediately knew how close to WCU that was. Bra and Dom both knew as well. They turned to Noca. **"I know…"**

Noca turned around and quickly focussed on Pan's energy signature.

At WCU Pan had taken her phone out and was about to tap on Noca's name, but her boyfriend immediately appeared right in front of her. They locked in an embrace.

"**Are you ok?"** Noca asked, gripping onto his girlfriend.

"**Yeah, we're fine here,"** Pan said, pulling out of the hug, **"Just shook up."**

"**Did you feel that?"** Noca asked. Pan looked at him strangely.

"**The explosion?"** She questioned, clearly thinking Noca was acting silly, but there was seriousness in his eyes. Intensity.

"**No, right before it. The moment before it happened. I felt a power signature. Did you?"** Noca explained and asked. Pan looked surprised for a moment and then clocked on to it. They looked at each other and then out of the window towards the huge rising smoke cloud.

Back at the Capsule Corp. compound, on a computer in one of the main offices, a computer regularly accessed by people like Bulma and Bra, an email flashed up reading: **EMERGENCY: Soniso Bank - Security Files**

* * *

_Hey there, people reading this story! I'm back! I'm so happy to finally have this chapter written and uploaded and I really hope you guys enjoy this. I personally feel like this is a really good start to this story, certainly sets the tone right away, I feel._

_This is also a new way for me to write and upload this story. Previously I would typically try to plan the entire story (or Arc) before I actually started writing it, but this time I'm doing it one chapter at a time. I literally planned this entire chapter in 2 days and then wrote it in 2 sittings, over the space of a week. That was the quickest I've done it in a while and it also feels a lot better. I think it will help to keep me motivated with this story to be honest. _

_I don't have a release date for the next chapter, and I have only just started to planning it out, but I will definitely update on my Facebook page (Dragon Ball AG - FanFiction) when I have finished the chapter._

_Thanks again for continuing to read and follow this story, and leaving reviews if you do. I always appreciate it all._


	2. Chapter 2: After the Attack

_**Chapter 2: After the Attack**_

Sirens rung out as lots of police cars, ambulances, and fire engines were screaming towards the site of the explosion. People were running away from the scene, the explosion had been heard across the entire city and some people were panicking, some were staying inside stores, in their workplaces, or their homes. The students and teachers of WCU were filing out, trying not to create any more panic. Students were being advised to return to their homes, or their student accommodations and stay there, the classes had been cancelled until further notice.

Noca was there to help with the evacuation of the campus, at least the one building, due to his high-visibility coat. People automatically assumed he was some sort of authority. Pan was helping, while keeping her friends close. As things started to calm down Noca, Pan, Lisa, and Sakura were standing just within the grounds of the university.

"**I think I'll head home,"** Pan said, turning to her boyfriend. **"I might take the girls with me, I wanna call my parents and let them know we're ok."**

Noca nodded and looked towards the smoke cloud.

"**You're gonna head over there?"** Pan enquired, noticing his distraction.

"**I might,"** Noca said, staring off into the distance. He turned to face her. **"You head home, relax, make sure they're ok."**

Noca motioned to Pan's friends, who clearly appeared shaken up by all the commotion. Pan and Noca were so used to stuff like this that it only awakened their fighting instincts. Both felt the urge to step up and do something, but they needed to be realistic.

"**Be careful, raise your power if anything goes wrong,"** Pan said, quickly kissing her boyfriend and turning around to her friends, and ushering them towards her car. Noca nodded to Pan as she drove off and then he took off, flying towards the scene. Pan's in-car phone started to ring, it was her parents' number. She answered and Gohan's face appeared on the small screen in the car's dashboard.

"**Pan, are you ok?"** Gohan asked immediately. **"I just heard about the explosion. I didn't feel anything."**

"**I'm ok dad, I'm with my friends, we're heading back to the apartment now, Noca's gone to see what's happened,"** Pan explained, trying to make sure Gohan and Videl didn't end up worrying, too much. Gohan definitely appeared a little relieved.

"**I'm glad you're all ok, if there's any problems…"**

"**Yeah, I know, raise my power and you'll come, I said the same to Noca,"** Pan assured her father that she knew the drill. Gohan nodded. **"We might have to cancel Rei's visit this weekend."**

"**Yeah, I'll let him know, he'll understand,"** Gohan agreed.

"**Thanks, Dad. I'll update you if we find out anything new,"** she said, reaching towards the end call button, **"I love you."**

"**Love you too, stay safe,"** Gohan replied as Pan ended the call. She let out a sigh and focussed on driving, even though there wasn't anywhere to go because of the traffic. She turned to her passenger seat and saw Lisa was trembling quite a bit. Pan then looked in the rear-view mirror and saw Sakura with her head down, frantically texting. The Saiyan reached over and placed a hand on Lisa's.

"**Hey,"** Pan said. Lisa looked up. **"It's ok, you're ok. Let your family know."**

Lisa held back tears and then took her phone out and started to call her mother. Pan looked back to Sakura.

"**Everything ok?"**

"**Yeah, my Aunt is all over the place, but she knows I'm safe,"** Sakura replied. They quickly smiled at each other as Pan returned focus to the road.

* * *

Noca landed at the site of the explosion, making sure to stay behind the police line, so not to arouse any suspicion. Fortunately, nobody was paying attention to him, they were too distracted by the damage and, sadly, death that had been caused. Noca looked around and noticed the effect of the explosion was grand. It had managed to leave no trace of who or what had been responsible. The blast radius was large, and the shock wave had shattered windows and cracked streets. Civilians were being questioned, crowds were dispersed and pushed away. Even the local army had shown up to help lock things down. Noca slowly moved through the crowds and, again, due to his coat, he was largely ignored.

He made it to the police line and was looking over, trying to spot something left behind on the ground. A single thing that could serve as a clue to what caused it. Noca knew he sensed some sort of power level at the moment of the explosion so it couldn't have been technology that caused the damage. It was a person. Noca lifted police tape up and headed forward a little bit but was immediately approached by a police officer.

"**Hey, you!"** The young man called out. Noca froze and cursed under his breath. He turned to the officer. The man was probably only a couple of years older than Noca. He was wearing a blue uniform, hat and all. He was black, wearing glasses, and had the slightest hint of stubble. He seemed shaken, just like everyone else. **"What are you doing?"**

"**I'm sorry, I just thought I could help out, have a look,"** Noca said, not really having anything else to say. He had crossed the line. The officer looked him up and down.

"**Capsule Corp. security? No, I'm not allowed to let you go any further,"** The officer said, stepping towards Noca and trying to usher him back. Despite the officer being a little older, in appearance, Noca was taller.

"**Look, Officer…"**

"**Aman,"** The officer finished.

"**Officer Aman, Capsule Corporation had some assets kept within Soniso Bank, and Ms Brief is eager to understand more of the situation,"** Noca lied, also trying to sound as much like a businessman as he could.

"**So… they sent security?"** Officer Aman questioned, and rightly so.

"**Well, this is just a coat, high-visibility, I honestly thought I could get past with it on,"** Noca said, sounding a little defeated, **"I guess I'll have to report the bad news to Ms Brief, she won't be too happy."**

The officer didn't seem to take that comment well, but he didn't take it the way Noca expected.

"**I think it's very wrong of you to use that excuse to guilt-trip me into letting you through. People died today, and even if your boss is going to be a little pissed off, that doesn't matter right now,"** Officer Aman said, showing that even though he appeared nervous and shaken, he certainly had some confidence. Noca realised what he was doing and looked past Aman, taking in the damage.

"**You're right,"** Noca said, he knew he was wrong for that. He looked Aman right in the eyes and the Saiyan's whole demeanour changed. **"The people responsible need to be found and stopped from causing any more harm. That's priority."**

Noca started to back up away and nodded to officer Aman.

"**Sorry for wasting your time,"** Noca said, turning around and ducking under the tape.

"**Hey!"** Aman called out, heading over to the tape. Noca stopped and turned around. **"If you want to know any new information, at least information I'm allowed to release, then call this number."**

Aman handed Noca a card that had Aman's precinct number, his work number, and his personal number. Noca took it and nodded, turning and walking away into the crowd. Noca pocketed the card and walked away from the scene and down an alley. He stopped for a moment and closed his eyes. He quietened his mind and narrowed his senses. He tried to pick up on something. An anomaly in the area. A slightly higher than average power level. Absolutely anything. But no. Nothing. Noca opened his eyes and cursed, punching the wall, managing to hold back and refrain from causing any more unnecessary damage.

He put his fingers to his head and used instant transmission, heading back to his job. There was nothing else he could do, not when he had nothing to go off. The rest of his shift was boring and quiet, but with reason. Bulma made sure that everyone was allowed to stop working and return to their families and Noca stayed in the security room alone until it was time to finish and go home. When he did eventually get home Pan and her friends were still there in the living room. They would both be staying the night, under Pan's suggestion.

Noca decided he wanted to try and get an early night, for once. He shouldn't have stayed up all night the previous day, plus he was stressed out from everything that happened. He wasn't able to sleep comfortably though. He didn't have pleasant dreams. There were explosions, people being hurt, and the site of a figure in a white cloak with a staff. That's when Noca would wake up. He recognised that being in the white cloak. He had previous interactions with that being. It had been a long time, but Noca couldn't forget it. They first showed up after the first time Noca killed.

After that, Noca couldn't get back to sleep. He went into the living room and just sat staring at the blank television, with Jessie the cat sitting beside him. Noca would gently stroke the cat while thinking over what he had seen in his dream. The explosion and stuff felt natural after what had happened, and none of his friends were in his dream, which was good, but the appearance of the being felt out of the blue. Noca pushed it out of his mind. It only reminded him of the time he spent in space. He knew he had to go back out there and find what he and Vegeta had been looking for, but for once, he wanted to enjoy some peace.

"**Hey,"** a voice said from behind Noca. He flinched a little, as the voice brought him back to reality. He looked over his shoulder to see Pan. She walked over and sat next to him. **"What's up?"**

"**Feeling a little worked up, probably because of the attack,"** Noca said. Pan moved closer to him and lay his head down in her lap.

"**You need to relax a bit,"** Pan said as she stroked his hair. She looked down into her boyfriend's eyes and wished she could see into his mind, but only sometimes. He kept so much hidden within and held a lot of weight on his shoulders and Pan always wished he would realise he didn't have to do so. Noca closed his eyes and felt calm. He always did when Pan was around. He started to feel tired again and sat up, suggesting that they head back to bed.

* * *

_Tuesday 8__th__ November Age 797_

Pan's friends returned to their homes the next morning. Things seemed to have calmed down in the city and there wasn't as much panic around. People were still anxious, and many people had stayed at home for, but many people were still going to work and living their lives like nothing had happened. Pan accompanied Noca to work that day, although she wasn't going there to disturb him. She decided to use the time she was getting off from university to head down to the gravity room and do some training. She planned to get in a strong workout and exhaust herself. Noca was always supportive about Pan's continued motivation to train and keep strong, although he was jealous that she was getting to do so more than him. With his injury still causing some discomfort Noca had to be careful, no matter how much he wanted to burst into that GR and spar with either Vegeta or Pan. He needed to be patient.

Noca was sitting in the security room, staring at the screens, but he had to be honest and admit that he wasn't really paying attention. His mind was elsewhere. The events of the previous day confusing and intriguing him. He almost felt guilty as he had been silently wishing for something to make his days interesting, but nothing of that scale. Noca tried to keep those thoughts down but he was getting himself worked up. He was restless. He would sit staring at the screens with his leg bouncing up and down, and when that became irritating, he would pace around the room. He could feel Pan's energy as she did her workout and it made him happy, but that led back to the jealously. He urgently wanted to do something.

The clock struck two o'clock and the next security guy came in for his shift. Noca practically flew out of the room when he showed up and rushed down to the gravity room. He entered without warning and saw that Pan was darting around the room punching and kicking at the drones that Vegeta would typically use. She was going at it with pace and precision, with the gravity set to 350x that of Earth's normal gravity. Pan never typically had that much gravity training but she was getting there, gradually. Noca leaned on the door frame as Pan noticed him. She stopped and descended. The gravity had dropped when Noca entered.

"**Having a good workout?"** Noca asked, handing his girlfriend her bottle of water. She wiped sweat away with her towel and took the bottle.

"**Thanks,"** she said, drinking down about two thirds of the bottle, **"It's been tough, but I needed this."**

"**I wish I could join,"** Noca mentioned, flashing his eyes to their Super Saiyan colour briefly, as a tease. Pan smirked.

"**I'm probably gonna be stronger than you soon,"** Pan said, walking over to the bench and sitting down for a break. Noca rolled up his sleeves and took a stance, raising the gravity back to 350x and he started to punch the air, but there was definitely some discomfort in his left wrist. **"Be careful!"**

Noca stopped and looked over to Pan, rolling his eyes and smirking.

"**I'm serious, don't make it any worse," **Pan said, taking a very serious tone. Noca gently shook his head and flashed Super Saiyan.

"**I'm fine, come on, let's spar,"** Noca suggested, Pan just shook her head and proceeded to check her phone. Noca set the training routine that Pan had been doing and started doing it himself while Pan sat there ignoring it. She didn't like when Noca ignored her, especially when he wanted to train with his injury. She had taken to letting him do it and if he hurts himself, she hopes he'll learn from his mistake.

Noca was doing well with the routine and managed to avoid using his left arm. The routines were nothing like when he actually got to spar with someone though, but Noca could feel something that might just help him out in that regard, and it was coming down towards the GR. Noca descended and turned to face the door. Pan looked up, wondering why Noca had stopped and when she saw him staring at the door she instantly realised.

"**No, don't do it, Noca. I mean it,"** Pan commanded, keeping her serious tone. She stepped up to Noca, but her boyfriend was focussed. The door opened and in stepped Vegeta.

"**So, you finally showed up for a spar,"** Vegeta said, arms folded, smirk on his face. Noca cracked his neck.

"**Why not? I got the time to kick your ass,"** Noca threatened. Vegeta flashed Super Saiyan and walked in.

"**Fine. Do what you want,"** Pan said, grabbing her things and leaving. Noca sensed Pan's tone and knew she was against the fight, but his Saiyan instincts were pushing him. Before Pan left the room though Noca called out.

"**Pan!"**

She stopped and slowly turned around, not a sign of amusement on her face.

"**We'll be careful,"** Noca said. Pan inhaled and was about to say something, but a Ki blast was instantly flung towards Noca and the young Saiyan had to knock it away.

"**Your reflexes are still good,"** Vegeta said, drawing Noca's complete attention. Noca didn't notice the door to the GR close as Pan finally left as he was already throwing a Ki blast back towards Vegeta. The Prince swatted the blast away but Noca zipped forward, punching with his right. Vegeta blocked that punch and Noca swung his leg around, attempting a roundhouse kick with his left, but the prince ducked below it. Noca followed up in that momentum and attempted another roundhouse kick with his right, but Vegeta blocked it that time by raising his left arm and stopping Noca's foot.

The Prince grabbed Noca's leg and swung him across the GR and threw him towards the other side. Noca flipped and powered out to stop himself, but Vegeta phased towards him and attempted to crash his knee into the young Saiyan's face. Noca went to block with both hands, naturally, but in the moment realised what would happen should that connect. Noca pulled his left hand away and tried to stop Vegeta's knee with his right hand but that didn't prove good enough. Vegeta's knee continued on and struck Noca in the face.

The young Saiyan dropped back, landing on the ground and immediately pounced back towards the Prince. Both attempted punches with their right hands and both fists connected with a small shock pulsing through the room. Both fighters immediately phased out appearing at a distance from each other and powering up attacks. Vegeta powered out two hands and thrust them forward shooting a Ki wave, Noca could only use his one hand and shot his own attack. The blasts connected, both exploding on impact.

Noca shot through the smoke cloud attempting to punch Vegeta in the head but the Prince phased at the last moment to avoid it, meaning Noca could on punch the air. He was unable to move to defend himself right away with Vegeta flying in and kicking Noca in the face. The young Saiyan was knocked down and fell to the ground, landing on his back and flipping up back to his feet. He had his right hand down on the ground to slow himself and keep balance. Vegeta dropped down in front of Noca attempting to punch him but the young man jumped back, narrowly avoiding the attack. Vegeta followed up by quickly charging towards Noca and jumped up a little performing a spinning kick with the intention of landing a kick down on him. Noca quickly threw his arm up to block the attack. The punch connected and Noca's eyes flashed open. He looked up and saw that even Vegeta seemed surprised. Reality slowly started to dawn on Noca, and all the pain shot through him at once. He fell back slightly, clutching his left wrist.

Vegeta powered down the gravity system and dropped from Super Saiyan. Noca got back to his feet and tried to move his arm a little bit, but nothing good came of that. Noca winced and groaned in pain.

"**Damn…"** Noca mumbled, looking at Vegeta with a weak smirk on his face. **"Pan was right."**

"**Let's take you to Bulma,"** Vegeta suggested.

"**She won't be happy…"** Noca muttered to himself as they left the GR.

"**What is wrong with you two?!"** Bulma yelled as the two Saiyans stepped into her lab, Noca clutching his left arm in his hand, with an uncomfortable smirk on his face. Bra and Dom were standing in the back working on something and Noca caught the eye of Dom and they both shook their heads, smirking at each other. Bra rolled her eyes and went back to her work. Pan was there too, and she wasn't pleased either. **"I told you both that you shouldn't be fighting but why would you listen to me."**

Bulma walked Noca over to her desk and sat him down in her chair and proceeded to deal with his cast and make sure the wrist was set in the right position, so it healed right. Vegeta managed to sneak towards the door, quietly, but Bulma noticed him.

"**You're equally as responsible for this, Vegeta,"** Bulma said, sternly. **"I don't want the two of you in that gravity room together at all, until your wrist is healed."**

Vegeta huffed and left. Bulma sighed and fixed Noca up.

"**Thanks, Bulma,"** Noca said, apologetically. He knew he shouldn't be sparring or training with the injury, but he was itching to do something. It had been a while since he was able to train all out. Noca was snapped back to reality when Pan slapped him on his right arm.

"**Don't ignore me again,"** Pan said, clearly annoyed with him. Noca nodded but couldn't help the small smirk that formed. **"I'm serious!"**

Noca stood up.

"**I know, I'm sorry. I won't do it again,"** Noca said, looking her in the eyes. **"I mean it. I'm sorry."**

While the couple had their little moment Bulma had returned to her desk and fired up her computer, she was checking through things and realised she had let her emails build. Upon scrolling through she saw something that had an urgent message and a video attachment. She clicked on it, opened the email and the video played. Bulma immediately stopped it, and gasped. Everyone turned to see what was wrong.

"**Mom, what is it?"** Bra asked from across the room and rushed over to her mother's side.

"**It's… it's footage from Soniso Bank, from yesterday,"** Bulma explained. Noca immediately moved to try and see it.

"**Play it,"** Noca said. Bulma hit play and the video showed three men walking down into the vault. One larger than the others, one holding a gun, and the other was clearly a bank employee. The vault opened and the large man walked in. The next thing that happened was some sort of altercation between the bank employee and the gun-wielding criminal. The employee managed to incapacitate the criminal and then proceeded to move him into view of the camera and unmasked him, so his face was clear. That's when the footage stopped. Before anyone could speak Bulma had started running the image of that criminal through her database.

"**He tried to help,"** Bra mentioned, **"He sent that footage so that someone could find who was responsible."**

"**But why only that?"** Noca enquired, **"Why not send footage from the entire bank? We could have seen more then."**

"**He probably didn't have enough time, I'm guessing,"** Dom spoke up, standing next to Bra and looking down at the screen.

"**No, he probably didn't, but we got something at least,"** Bulma said as she hit a few buttons and brought up a file on the criminal from the footage.

"**You just have files on everybody?"** Noca asked, Bulma rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"**No, I searched the internet,"** Bulma replied.

"**Ok… well, who was he?"** Noca questioned further, needing to find out more details.

"**Well, it turns out he was a former employee of Alpha Industries, one of our rivals in the tech industry,"** She explained. Noca leaned in closer and tried to read what he could.

"**There's barely any information about him," **Noca said.

"**Yep. Seemed like he just had an ordinary desk job, not the kind of person you'd think would be part of a bank heist turned terrorist attack,"** Bulma went on.

"**What should we do?"** Noca asked.

"**We have to send it to the authorities, right?"** Pan spoke up. **"Surely they should be the ones to deal with this?"**

Noca looked to Pan and back to Bulma. He reached into his pocket and felt the card the police officer had given him the previous day.

"**I should send it to West City PD, you're right,"** Bulma agreed, but Noca spoke up again.

"**Is there nothing we can do? Visit Alpha Industries, maybe? Find out something about this employee,"** Noca suggested.

"**Isn't that what the police should do?"** Bra questioned, **"You're not a cop. You're security. They won't let you talk to anyone high up."**

"**Can't you set up some sort of meeting, ask them if they know anything about the employee after he stopped working for them?" **Noca asked Bulma.

"**Or we just do the right thing, and send it to the police,"** Pan spoke up again. Noca sighed. **"You don't have to be the hero here."**

"**I'm not trying to be, you know I felt an energy as it happened,"** Noca said, turning to face his girlfriend. **"I want to know why."**

Pan slightly nodded in agreement, but Noca knew she wasn't on board with his idea. Noca then pulled out the card and placed it on the desk.

"**A police officer gave me this yesterday when I went to the site, he said to call to find out about any new information, at least any he could give to the public. If we give him this, he'll let us help,"** Noca suggested. Bulma sat back in her chair and smirked.

"**Fine. I'll call him and let him know what we have,"** Bulma said, picking up the card. **"I'll let you know what he says."**

Noca accepted that as the best response he was going to get in this situation. He would simply need to wait it out and see if he could be involved in some way. There was no pushing himself into the situation, even if they did hold some information that was relevant. It would raise questions if Capsule Corp. themselves got involved without at least notifying the police of the information that had been made available to them.

Noca didn't like waiting around and Pan knew it. She could sense the unease within him, it was there from the previous night. She had to admit that she understood and empathised with the unease. There was definitely a Ki based power felt prior to the explosion and it was a mystery as to whom it belonged to. Pan had to admit she was as eager as Noca to find out what had caused it, and she knew that they both shared the same fear: that another attack would happen, and they would be powerless to stop it.

Later that evening the couple were at their home together, sitting and eating dinner in silence. Noca was picking at his food and seemed to be somewhere else entirely. He had been waiting to hear back from Bulma all evening but he heard nothing. Pan felt his tension. As Noca sat there, his left arm rested on the table, holding his fork in his right hand, Pan stood up and walked over to him. Noca didn't react until he felt Pan grab his arm and she pulled him up, leading him over to couch and sitting him down. She stood in front of him for a second, smiled and climbed on to his lap, beginning to passionately kiss him. Noca was surprised by the sudden action but he wasn't about to stop it. He embraced the kiss and placed his right hand on Pan's lower back. His left was pretty useless here.

Pan broke the kiss and reached her hands down, lifting up her shirt, removing it and the proceeded to take off her bra. She took Noca's hand and placed it on her breast before kissing him again. Noca eventually found his strength and returned to reality. He lifted her up and carried her to the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

As the door closed, Noca's phone on the dining table lit up with a text message from Bulma.

* * *

_Not going to dive full into the mature stuff here, just a little hint at something XD. Sorry for the late update to this story. I hope everyone who reads this story is staying safe and well during these difficult and confusing times. I've been swamped with work so I've been unable to put a lot of time into this story as well as my other personal projects. I do have some good news though, I'm already working on Chapter 3 and I've nearly finished it, I might actually be able to get it completed and released within the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for that._

_If you enjoyed this chapter and you have something to say you should leave a review, I love having something next to read. Either way, stay safe, and I'll see you for a new chapter soon!_


	3. Chapter 3: Parental Guidance

_**Chapter 3: Parental Guidance**_

_Wednesday 9__th__ November Age 797_

Pan was up first the next morning. She immediately got up to feed the cat and get herself showered and ready for the day, even though she didn't have anywhere to be. She left Noca to sleep as he was in need of a good night's rest after having a few sleepless nights, plus she could never bring herself to wake him up. He was far to peaceful. Pan was tidying up around the apartment when she noticed Noca had left his phone on the dining table. She picked it up and saw there was a message from Bulma about the police officer. Pan only glanced at the message and only really saw the start of it. She decided it best not to open the message and read it herself. Although, Pan wanted Noca to realise that she was just as worried and interested in finding out what had happened as he was, but would he let her be involved.

Pan didn't get a chance to do anything else as Noca slowly wandered out into the hallway.

"**Morning,"** He mumbled, half-yawning. Pan chuckled.

"**Good morning, you left your phone out here last night,"** Pan said, handing it to him. Noca stretched, cracking his neck and took the phone.

"**Thanks,"** He said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"**I didn't read it, but you have a message from Bulma,"** Pan said, hoping that Noca realised it confirmed her interest. Noca sighed and opened the message. Pan wanted to ask what it said but continued tidying up as Noca read it. He seemed disappointed.

"**He thanked her for the information, said we shouldn't get involved any further,"** Noca said, putting the phone down and wandering back to the bedroom. Pan wanted to say something more, but she heard the bathroom door shut and the shower go. Pan sighed and stopped what she was doing.

Noca stood in the bathroom after the shower, staring at the mirror as the steam slowly dissipated and his reflection become visible. He was annoyed that he couldn't do anything in his position. There was no way he could do anything without possibly doing something illegal and that really wouldn't help anything. He was getting worked up and his energy was sparking a little bit. Pan could obviously feel it because she was immediately knocking on the door.

"**Are you ok?"** She asked through the door. Noca immediately calmed down and stepped out of the bathroom. He stood there quietly for moment.

"**People died, and there's nothing we can do right now…"** Noca said, **"I feel useless."**

Pan took Noca's hand in hers.

"**What if Alpha Industries are somehow involved?"** Noca suggested. Pan's brow furrowed.

"**You mean, what if that employee was still working for them? Even though his file said he left," **Pan questioned. Noca shook his head.

"**I don't know, I'm just trying to see what I can make of the information we have. I'm trying to figure something out,"** Noca said, as he walked into the bedroom, drying himself off and getting dressed into some casual clothes.** "I don't know how I just go about my day with this still scratching at the back of my head, you know?"**

Pan nodded slightly. Noca sat down with his head in his hands.

"**I called my Mom, said we're gonna drop over there today,"** Pan said, changing the subject, but believing it was the only way to at least move on from the situation as best they could. Noca looked up and nodded in agreement. **"It'll help keep your mind off of things. We can relax."**

Pan smiled, sitting down next to Noca and kissing him on the cheek. Noca barely reacted, but she could sense that he was feeling at ease, if only a little.

The couple flew over to Pan's parents' house about a couple of hours later and were immediately greeted by Rei, who ran up to meet his older sister. The four-year-old leapt up at Pan and she managed to grab the child and held him in a tight hug.

"**Oh, how's my baby brother doing?"** Pan asked, keeping him in the hug.

"**I was playing with my toys and mommy said you were coming to see me but that I can't come to stay with you now,"** Rei blurted out, barely taking a breath, and going from being overly excited to disappointed in the same sentence.

"**Yeah, I'm sorry, Rei. But…"** Pan stalled, trying to quickly think of the most delicate way to put things. **"Noca and I have got a lot going on right now, we're very busy with work."**

Rei completely blanked Pan when he finally realised Noca was there too. He jumped from Pan's arms to Noca, but he wasn't ready for the child to come flying at him and both fell to the ground. Rei landed on Noca's stomach.

"**Hi Noca!" **Rei practically yelled in excitement.

"**Yeah, hi…"** Noca grunted out as he sat up, chuckling lightly. **"You're too strong for me, buddy."**

Rei jumped off of Noca and tried to pull him up to lead him back to the house.

"**I wanna show you the new toy daddy got me,"** Rei said, pulling with all his might. Noca laughed and stood up, following Rei. They entered and Noca was immediately dragged into the living room and sat down on the floor in front of a mess of Rei's toys. Noca looked around at the mess and at the kid. He just chuckled as Rei started picking up as much as he could and bringing it over to Noca.

Videl was just in the next room and came in once she heard Noca and Pan.

"**Oh, you came over, I'm so glad you did,"** Videl said as she hugged and kissed her daughter. **"I'm glad you're ok, both of you."**

Noca looked over and smiled at her.

"**Yeah I think we both needed to come and unwind a little,"** Pan said, smiling as her boyfriend continued to play with her brother. **"Feels like we both could use some parental interaction."**

"**Well, your father is making dinner, so it's a treat for all of us,"** Videl said as she giddily went to the kitchen with Pan.

"**Really? I haven't had dad's cooking in ages,"** Pan exclaimed, entering the kitchen to see her dad preparing dinner. **"Hi, dad."**

Pan went up and planted a quick kiss on her father's cheek, before picking at some of the food that was already prepared.

"**Wait until it's all done, Pan!"** Gohan said, as he continued to focus on one thing, unable to get Pan to stop.

"**So, what's going on in the city right now?"** Videl asked, sitting down at the table, pouring Pan some tea. Pan sat beside her mother and took the tea.

"**They've locked-down that whole area, Police monitoring the streets and they've even moved some of the army in to keep an eye on things. Apparently, it was so easy how they just moved in and did what they did, cops couldn't handle it at all,"** Pan explained, **"But, they can't really press forward with a huge investigation because they have absolutely nothing to go on. The site was barren. I didn't see it…"**

"**But I did,"** Noca said, walking into the room. Rei had apparently entered too, grabbing himself a glass of water. He was oblivious to the adult conversation. **"Pan's right. Literally nothing left."**

Gohan wasn't facing them but he was definitely listening. He tried to focus on preparing the food while absorbing every bit of the conversation.

"**There was something…"** Pan mentioned, looking up to Noca. He sat down at the table.** "Bulma was sent security footage that identifies one of the people, and we want to investigate it further."**

Noca reacted to that, looking up at Pan. She had made no prior mention of the fact that she was interested in following it up as well. If anything, it seemed she wanted to leave it to the authorities. Pan glanced over at Noca and smiled weakly. Noca looked over towards Gohan, still with his back to them.

"**We can't let another attack happen, it'll be our fault for not doing anything,"** Noca said, looking back to Pan. He finally realised that she felt the exact same as he did about the situation. He reached over and took her hand in his.

"**What would you do?"** Gohan asked.

"**We have a name, a face, and a former workplace,"** Pan explained.

"**And what, you would just show up there and ask questions? That's a bit suspicious,"** Gohan said.

"**Well, actually it wouldn't be, because they have no reason to know that he was involved or that we know he was involved because it's not public knowledge. As it seems, nobody knows that footage was even sent to Bulma,"** Pan explained further. Gohan titled his head to the side slightly, showing that he understood and maybe even agreed with her.

"**I'm certain you two could handle yourselves if things got ugly,"** Videl said, before glancing over at Noca's wrist. **"Well…"**

Noca scoffed lightly.

"**What does Bulma think?"** Videl asked.

"**She sent the footage to a police officer that Noca spoke to at the site, I'm sure he's following up the investigation, and she wants us to leave to them,"** Pan answered, which brought them back to the same position where they weren't sure what to do.

"**I don't think we should leave it to the police. We need to be wary of Alpha,"** Noca spoke up.

"**Alpha?"** Gohan questioned, turning around. **"What have they got to do with it?"**

"**The guy was a former employee of Alpha, and we had a teacher for a bit who was part of Alpha,"** Noca replied. Something sparked in Pan's mind when Noca said that.

"**You're right!"** She said. **"Mr Teki taught at our school. He had something to do with them."**

"**And we encountered Alpha tech. Tech that made people stronger…" **Noca explained, trailing off a little and then looked over at Pan. **"Like what happened back with Dom, and Dazir."**

"**Wow, it's been a while since I thought about that,"** Pan said, before realising what Noca was getting at. Gohan had clocked on as well. **"Wait, you think that Alpha has something to do with this."**

"**I couldn't prove it, but I'd like to know,"** Noca looked back to Gohan.

"**I think you should both do what you feel is right,"** Gohan said, turning back to finish the cooking. **"Now dinner will be ready soon, so we can move this conversation to later."**

Dinner was delicious, and dinner conversation switched over to Rei and his early experiences with school life, how Pan was getting on with her university life, and what had been going on with Gohan and Videl as they started to spend more and more time together. After dinner, Gohan and Noca decided to go for a walk in the fields, while Pan and Videl had some proper Mother/Daughter time, with Rei getting an early night.

"**You've not been training much,"** Gohan mentioned as he and Noca casually sauntered through the field. Noca scoffed.

"**Not like I haven't wanted to, I'm itching to just get out my aggression, I need to do something,"** Noca said, clearly feeling some pent-up frustration. Gohan chuckled.

"**I'm probably not the one you want to hear this from, but sex is good to get rid of that latent energy,"** Gohan said, causing Noca to chuckle lightly. **"Plus, if you're feeling that way, Pan will understand it and feel it too."**

"**I know, she definitely does. I think I've been a little too focussed on myself recently,"** Noca said, stopping and turning to Gohan. **"I feel like I'm not doing what I should be doing."**

"**And what should you be doing?"** Gohan asked, **"Going back into space with Vegeta?"**

Noca wasn't sure what to say. He couldn't be sure that was what he should be doing, or even what he wanted to do. But there was something important missing.

"**We can't always be prepared for what's coming our way. I wasn't prepared to fight Cell, so I thought, but when my moment came, I stepped up,"** Gohan said, trying to touch on his own experiences to help out the young man he had grown incredibly fond of.

"**I'm just worried…"** Noca muttered, looking down. Gohan placed a hand on Noca's shoulder.

"**You're a strong man, and you're a Saiyan. We all have our worries, it's what makes us who we are, it's what makes us care. You're holding too much on your shoulders. We're all always going to be here to help you, no matter what,"** Gohan explained, smiling. Noca smiled and scoffed lightly.

"**I know,"** Noca muttered.

"**And you don't need to fight to train, you know that,"** Gohan said, turning around and walking in the direction back to the house.

"**Are you talking about sex again? You know I'm dating your daughter, right?"** Noca said, laughing, thinking the situation was just a little bit uncomfortable. Gohan laughed out loud.

"**It is good for the aggression, trust me, but no, that's not what I was talking about," **Gohan explained, **"Meditation and image training will really help you. And you always have a strong partner for any kind of training with Pan."**

Noca smiled to himself before rushing to catch up with Gohan as they walked back to the house together. Pan and Noca then said their goodbyes before flying back to West City, not wanting to stick around until too late. They had an early dinner with the family and then it was back home to figure out what their next steps should be towards this investigation.

Meanwhile, in Satan City, Holline and Kiera were walking through the streets, heading to their favourite take-out place for date night. They were talking and laughing, hand-in-hand, as they slowly walked along. Holline was teasing Kiera about something and the blonde was trying desperately to defend herself, but Holline continued to tease. Kiera started to pout, clearly not getting her way. Holline just stopped and held her girlfriend's hands. She leaned in and nuzzled her nose gently before planting a kiss on her lips. They smiled at each other and continued walking on, entering the takeout place.

A few blocks away, down an alleyway, a trio of people stood together. There was a man, tall, well built, with neatly combed brown hair. He was leaning against the wall. In front of him stood a young woman, well built but slender, with blonde hair tied into a ponytail. She stood with her arms crossed. The third was standing with his back to them both, facing the exit to the alleyway, keeping an eye out. They were a late-teenage boy, average in height, with messy, spiky dark brown hair, that was shoulder length. We're familiar with this trio. They were Joji, Sofia, and Yaiko, from the World Tournament.

"**Clear on the plan?"** Sofia asked Joji. He waved his hand at her as if to dismiss her.

"**Yes, I got it,"** Joji said, turning to face Yaiko, who was still looking away. Joji slapped him on the head, **"Hey!"**

Yaiko swung around and backed a couple of steps, clutching his head. He looked angry but was still too timid to do anything.

"**What was that for?"** Sofia asked Joji, pushing him against the wall and standing beside Yaiko.

"**He wasn't listening. Ask him if he knows the plan,"** Joji argued.

"**Get the card, we go in, get the tech, clear the files, leave without a trace,"** Yaiko said, almost as if reading from a script. It was like the plan had never left his head. Joji crossed his arms and shook his head, leaning against the wall again. Yaiko turned around and walked to the end of the alley, putting his hood up and keeping an eye out again.

"**What's he doing?"** Joji asked. Sofia sighed.

"**Keeping an eye out to see when the scientists leave. Then we go in,"** Sofia snapped.

"**What do we do if there's a security system?"** Joji asked.

"**We may need to hit the fuse-box to the building before we enter,"** Sofia replied. Joji stepped away from the wall and in front of Sofia again.

"**How can we erase files if we switch off the power?"** Joji asked.

"**You ask far too many questions, leave it to me,"** Sofia said, pushing past Joji and walking to the end to stand next to Yaiko. **"You ready for this?"**

"**Of course. What's so hard about it?"** Yaiko said, defensively. There was a little shakiness voice, but that wasn't due to nerves about the plan. Sofia placed a hand on his shoulder and Yaiko flinched ever so slightly.

"**Try not to be so on edge,"** Sofia whispered, **"You know Joji sees it as a way to get to you."**

"**They're leaving now,"** Yaiko said, getting back on task. Sofia looked down the alley to Joji and nodded. Joji responded with a nod of his own and headed the other way up the alley and around a corner. Yaiko stepped out of the alley as two scientists, a man and woman, were walking his way. Yaiko took a breath, put his head down and walked their way. He turned his music on, helping him to concentrate and bobbed his head along to the song, also helping him look less suspicious. Sofia stayed hidden down the alleyway.

Yaiko continued towards the scientist and walked between the two of them, accidently bumping one, gently, enough so it didn't cause any commotion. He muttered an apology, as the scientist carried on. Once they were gone from view, Sofia stepped out of the alley as Yaiko took his hand out of his pocket to show the key card belonging to one of the scientists. Sofia smirked.

"**That's my man,"** Sofia said, with a wink as she took the card from him and walked on. Yaiko blushed and turned to follow. They approached a white building with the words King's Systems on a sign above the door. It was a subtle building. Through the windows it looked just like any ordinary office with a receptionist's desk, but the trio would need to get into the back. Sofia looked at the door and saw that there wasn't anything to use the key-card. **"This doesn't open the door?"**

She turned to Yaiko.

"**No, that's for inside, we still need to hit the fuse box,"** He told her, she grunted, but was already prepared to do that anyway. **"I'll stay and keep watch. The fuse box is just around there."**

Yaiko pointed to the side of the building where it dipped in a little bit, not into another alleyway, but just as the path became wider. Sofia rushed to it and Yaiko walked over blocking her from view and making sure no one walked past. Sofia opened the fuse box and touched all the wires and switches trying to figure something out. Sofia tried to see if she could figure out which one was connected to the security system, luckily some of them were labelled, but they needed to ensure that the lab stuff remained on. Which was why it was good that one was labelled 'Server.'

Sofia took a chance and flipped a couple of switches and turned to Yaiko.

"**Try the door."**

Yaiko nodded and walked to the door. He pressed the handle down and pushed, slowly. The door opened. He waited for about half a minute and nothing happened. Sofia realised everything was normal, closed the fuse-box and headed around to the door. They both entered, closing the door behind them. They headed to the lab door and that's where the key-card came in handy. Or it would have. The door panel didn't react. Sofia cursed.

"**Damn, I must have switched off the door control with the fuse-box,"** She said, shaking her head. Yaiko looked to the door and just turned the handle, pushing the door and it opened. **"Oh…"**

Yaiko smirked up at her and when she smiled back, he quickly looked forward and headed into the lab. The lights came on automatically.

"**Ok. You go find that storage, and get the tech,"** Sofia ordered, **"I'll erase the server."**

Yaiko nodded and walked over to a big door at the end of the room and swiped the key card. As he did the door opened but it didn't open up to show any sort of storage, it opened up another room, not as big as the one they were in, but a room with a lot of paper files, and other things.

"**Sofia… there are physical files here as well,"** Yaiko called out, **"We'll need to destroy these too."**

"**That's not our only problem, I can't just erase all files on this system, it only lets me go one folder at a time, it's like they've programmed it to make this difficult,"** Sofia said, cursing and slamming her hand down on the desk. Yaiko walked into the room and saw a security box on the wall, but it had a keypad, which meant they needed more than just the card.

Meanwhile, Joji had got to their vehicle and drove it to the front of the building. He parked up and walked inside, to meet with his allies.

"**Where we at?"** He asked walking in.

"**I'm having a tough time deleting these files, there are load of physical files stored in that room, and the tech is locked behind a code,"** Sofia explained, showing that they weren't in the greatest of situations. Joji chuckled.

"**We can just rip it out and take the tech, and blow this place away,"** Joji said.

"**That's not exactly doing this without a trace, and you were supposed to stay outside to keep an eye on things,"** Yaiko said, his voice cracking a little bit. Joji scoffed and stepped into the storage room. He walked up to the box and went to rip it off the wall. Yaiko pushed him back. **"Stop."**

"**You just push me? You got balls all of a sudden?"** Joji said, stepping towards Yaiko, clearly towering over him. Yaiko cowered a little.

Back out on the streets, the scientists were continuing to walk along, chatting, and they approached an apartment building. The man walked up to the door and reached into his pocket to take out his key, and the woman watched, noticing something.

"**Where's your key-card?"** She asked. The man looked down around his neck and noticed the card that was in his lanyard was missing.

"**Huh, that's strange. Perhaps I left it back at the lab,"** The man said, chuckling. **"Clumsy me."**

"**Guess we're walking back there then?"** The woman said, rolling her eyes and turning around. They both headed off together.

Back at the lab things were still pretty stressful. Sofia had to go to the storage room to stop any sort of conflict from amplifying between Yaiko and Joji.

"**Will you both keep focus, we can't mess this up,"** She said to them both, pushing them apart. Joji pushed Sofia away.

"**Nah, the kid's finally stepping up to me, let's see what he does,"** Joji said, placing his hand on the wall. Yaiko didn't react well to Sofia being pushed.

"**Leave her alone, and don't damage that!"** He yelled back. Sofia looked to Yaiko, seeing the anger in him. The anger she had hoped to see come out during the tournament. He hadn't been able to do it in the fight against her. Sofia looked to Joji, who without a second thought punched Yaiko in the face. He fell back and knocked some of the files over.

"**Hey! Stop it!"** Sofia yelled, standing up to Joji and pushing him away from the wall. **"We need to do this properly."**

Meanwhile, outside, the scientists arrived and noticed their door was open and a weird car was parked outside. The man stepped inside and the woman took out her phone, beginning to call for the police, while checking out the vehicle.

In the storage room again, Joji lifted his hand to the wall again and ripped the storage case open, revealing the tech, but setting off a very loud alarm, that was very clearly heard outside. The male scientist rushed in, the woman tried to stop him, but just got in touch with the police. She informed them of what was happening.

Holline and Kiera were walking just a few blocks away and managed to hear the loud alarm.

"**What's that?"** Kiera asked, Holline listened for it and figured out which way it was coming from.

"**Let's check it out,"** the red head suggested as the two of them started to head towards the sound.

"**What did you do that for? Now we'll be caught!"** Sofia yelled at Joji.

"**You were taking far too long with figuring this shit out,"** Joji snapped back.

"**You made the situation worse by picking a fight with us,"** Sofia replied. The alarm continued to scream. The male scientist entered the room.

"**Who are you people?!"** He asked, befuddled by what he was seeing. Joji cursed and went to attack him but Sofia stopped it.

"**No, don't!"** She said pulling him back. Joji punched her off of him. Yaiko watched on and his eyes went wide. He rushed forward and pushed Joji away. Joji turned back and looked down on the boy. Yaiko looked infuriated. There was an aura around him, only small, and his hair was waving a little.

"**Leave her alone!"** Yaiko yelled. Joji smirked again, he was still holding the tech, he looked down and then up at Yaiko and over to Sofia.

"**Fine,"** He lifted his hand towards the scientist and shot a Ki blast. The man was flung off of his feet, through two walls and landed on the street in front of the female scientist. She screamed as the man crumbled to the ground, clearly with broken bones, and bleeding. He may well have been dead. Joji then shot a Ki blast at the computers, blowing them up. **"There, your files are gone."**

Joji turned around and walked away, stepping outside walking past the body and the woman, ignoring her as she wept beside the dead man. Yaiko helped Sofia up and the two of them proceeded to leave the building, walking past the woman and getting into the vehicle. They moved as quickly as she could, but the woman took no noticed of them.

Holline and Kiera arrived on the scene in time to see the trio inside the vehicle, and the woman on the path, with the body. Holline started to rush forward as Joji put his hand out of the window and shot a large Ki blast into the building before driving off. Holline managed to see the situation in slow motion and had to make a choice. She flew forward at a powerful pace and managed to scoop up the woman in her arms, just as the Ki blast exploded, and the car sped off. The pulse of the explosion knocked Holline across to the other side of the street and through a shop window, as the car left the scene, and police cars start to arrive from the other direction.

Kiera rushed over to the building on the other side of the street and saw that Holline was laying with the woman as protected as she could be. Both had a few cuts and scrapes but were practically unharmed. Kiera looked over to the lab and saw that it was in ruins as Police filed out of their cars, a couple rushing to the dead body and other coming towards them.

One pulled out their gun and aimed it at Kiera.

"**Hands up!"** He ordered. Kiera yelped a little and Holline jumped up, practically appearing in front of Kiera as a shield. The office panicked and stepped back. The woman stood up frantically.

"**No, please, I made the call, this girl just saved my life!"** She explained, before looking across the street at her building. **"Oh… no…"**

She started to cry again and fell to her knees. Holline stepped into the street and looked at the mess. Kiera appeared by her side.

"**I recognised them. The three in the car,"** Holline said to her girlfriend. She looked back at the woman as she explained everything to the police, while trying to stifle tears and sobs. She didn't really know any information other than what happened to her husband. She showed she had a photo of the license plate on the car and then immediately put out a call.

"**We're looking for a silver sedan, license plate number K41-SCI3,"** The officer said. Holline said the number to herself and told Kiera to make a note in her phone. The red head then approached the police.

"**I know the names of the people you're looking for,"** She told the officer. He turned around very quickly.

"**How?"** He asked.

"**I recognised them from the tournament. They are Joji, Sofia, and Yaiko,"** Holline said, reeling them off and smiling weakly at the officer.

"**Thanks for the help…"** He said, trailing off and then reporting that to the officer down the radio, then he turned back to the girls. **"You two should head home, this is a crime scene now." **

Holline and Kiera nodded, backing away. They looked towards the woman one last time, but she was still sobbing. Kiera led Holline away gently by the arm. The couple headed off up the street. Holline looked back on the crime-scene again and was very troubled.

"**First the stuff in West City, now here,"** Kiera said, sighing. **"Things are crazy."**

"**I'm going to see Noca tomorrow, see if we can figure out what's going on,"** Holline said to her girlfriend. She looked at Kiera and the blonde nodded, she looked quite shaken and Holline only just clocked it and gasped to herself. Kiera looked up in shock as Holline threw her arms around Kiera and locked into a tight embrace. **"Are you ok? That explosion must have shaken you up."**

"**Am I ok?"** Kiera asked, chuckling awkwardly and gently pushing out of the embrace. **"You're the one that flung yourself over there and got blasted through a window. Are you ok?"**

Holline chuckled awkwardly and sighed. She hugged Kiera again and the two continued walking along. Their date night did not go as planned, but Kiera was still holding their food and they could make the most of the remainder of the evening.

* * *

_So, chapter good, yay or nay? But seriously, thanks for reading and continuing with this story. I've enjoyed writing this arc ever since I took to actually planning and writing one chapter at a time, as opposed to planning the whole thing and then writing. Doing things this way makes me feel a little more at ease. It feels far more relaxed._

_Anyway, I don't yet have chapter 4 written, nor have a I started. I do hope to have done in a couple of weeks though, but we'll see how that goes. Either way, thanks for reading, leave a review if you feel that way inclined. Stay safe as the world continues to be crazy. You can send me a PM whenever you feel like it, and I'll always get back to you. If you want to be updated on how I'm doing with the story I post on my Facebook page whenever I finish a chapter. You should be able to find it by searching for Dragon Ball AG - FanFiction. _

_Thanks again. Bye._


	4. Chapter 4: The Shadow Operatives

_**Chapter 4: The Shadow Operatives**_

_Thursday 10__th__ November Age 797_

Much of the population of Satan City was shaken by the attack that occurred the previous night. It was on all the news stations, on the cover of every newspaper, all anyone could talk about. Everyone was trying to find links to the West City attack, to no avail. There was just not enough evidence available, plus very little was made public knowledge.

In fact, Holline and Kiera were two of only three civilians that knew who was involved and how many casualties there had been. Thankfully, it wasn't as terrible as the attack on West City's Soniso bank, but there was still one death. The girls that had been witness to the final moments of the attack knew that there had to be a connection in some way, and there was only one way they were going to be sure of that.

The next morning, Holline contacted Noca, sending him a text, making him aware of the attack if the news hadn't done that job for him. With Pan at home, she was able to accompany Noca as they travelled to Satan City to meet up with Holline. Rather than dawdle it was best to get moving to the crime scene right away.

It was while they walked down the street that Holline described what she had witnessed and how she recognised the trio from the tournament. Noca was busy trying to find a way to link those three to Alpha Industries in some way. Maybe he was just eager to pin the blame on someone, and that was all the information they had to go on. Holline said the only other information, other than the identities of the three suspects, was the license plate number for the vehicle they used.

As they rounded the corner to the street where the attack took place, Holline was surprised to see how much things had changed from the previous night. The whole area had been blocked off, as was expected, but there was a big van parked inside the blocked off area, and there were some strange looking soldiers standing around. They seemed more advanced and tactical than any soldier this trio had seen before. They didn't have a set uniform, but all of them bore the King's emblem.

As the trio started to approach, standing where a few other civilians had gathered, trying to check out the crime scene, one of the soldiers approached, waving his hands.

"**Hey! This is a crime scene, you can't hang around here,"** He ordered, he was well spoken, but there was a confident nature to him. He was holding some sort of rifle and had a handgun holstered at his hip. He was definitely heavily armed. He was brown-skinned, with a thick black moustache, and had neatly styled hair. Quite modern. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties.

Noca moved through the crowd, approaching the front and attempting to be forward.

"**What's happening here?"** Noca asked, trying to see what information they were willing to tell ordinary people. The man simply held his hand out and pushed back on the Saiyan.

"**I won't tell you again, back off,"** He commanded, turning his back on Noca and walking towards another of his fellow soldiers. A woman, shorter, but she held herself with confidence and pride. She had short blonde hair that was styled in a way to keep out of her face. Her weapon was a large snipe-rifle positioned on her back. She glanced over at the civilians and rolled her eyes, speaking into a communicator on her wrist.

From the building that had been attacked, another man emerged. He seemed to have some sort of tactical vest over the top of an ordinary short-sleeved t-shirt. He had a very short mohawk, with everything else shaved. He was Caucasian and had a short goatee. He looked to his allies, and the woman simply motioned her head to the crowd of civilians that had gathered. He walked over, like a man on a mission and his expression was one of frustration.

"**People, you cannot hang around here. It is a very dangerous crime scene,"** The man explained, definitely trying to sound less frustrated than he appeared. Noca couldn't place it, but the man sounded like he was from the north.

"**You are soldiers, aren't you?"** One civilian piped up.

"**Is this a terrorist attack? Like West City?"** Another civilian said. The solider sighed and put his hands on his hips, he noticed that one of the civilians was holding their phone, with the microphone open.

"**Are you a reporter?"** He asked the person, they seemed to quickly hide their phone away, to avoid a confrontation. **"I am Captain Cas Babka, of the King's Secret Service,"** He started, looking at the people who had gathered, gauging their reactions. **"We have been ordered to check on the scene to find any links to the attack on West City, but there is limited information available right now, and we are not willing to release anything to the public until we are absolutely certain that it is the truth."**

He looked to the reporter with a look that said, 'are you satisfied?' That reporter was definitely intimidated by Babka's composure. He nodded and walked away. Noca backed away too, walking away from the crowd and standing with Holline and Pan for a moment.

"**They think this is much more serious than they're letting on,"** Holline said, looking over at the soldiers. **"I've never seen soldiers like that."**

"**He said they were part of the King's secret service, and that was a lab belonging to one of the King's science divisions,"** Pan explained, **"Maybe they have assets to protect or something like that."** Pan looked to Noca to see what he could add. He seemed deep in thought.

* * *

Over in West City, Officer Dean Aman was just sitting down at his desk, and running through some files on his computer, and some papers that had been left for him. Even though he really hoped to push through the ranks and perhaps make it as a proper detective someday, he wasn't quite as confident on the streets, and he definitely didn't mind handling the paperwork side of the job. It was a part that many officers thought was a little tedious, but Dean could handle it.

However, in that moment, he wasn't really paying too much attention to the files on his desk. He was focussed more on his computer screen. His cursor hovered over a video file; the video file he had been sent from Capsule Corp. Footage from Soniso Bank was on there. Dean had only watched through it once and could see there wasn't a tremendous amount of information to go on. He knew he could find out more information if he needed to, but that would mean seeking help.

At the moment, Dean wasn't sure what to do with this important information he held. Maybe it was his naïveté in the job, but he felt that since it was sent to him it was his obligation to do something about it. Mix that with the fact that he was hoping to push through the ranks and if he did in fact choose to investigate it further himself then he would show initiative.

He wasn't given too much time to dwell on his thoughts after the elevator door at the front of the office opened up and out from it emerged two men. One of the men was older, possibly in his later forties, early fifties. The other man was around his thirties. There was something strange about those two men. The older man wore a dark grey pinstripe suit, he had neatly combed grey hair, and a grey moustache. From his face it seemed like he had been through a lot, he had not aged well, however, the way he held himself contradicted that fact. He had a straight back and walked with tremendous posture. You could hear his shoes clapping against the ground as he walked across the room, towards the Captain's office. He certainly drew attention.

The second man, was taller than the first, wearing a black suit, and he was bald. He had on black sunglasses, so he certainly gave off a mysterious vibe. Everyone watched these men stride across the room towards the office and enter without even knocking. As the office door shut, the murmuring began.

"**Who were they?"** One of the female officers asked her nearby colleague.

"**I don't know, you'd think he was a politician with the way he just waltzed in here, but I don't recognise him,"** A male officer replied.

Everyone was looking as the older man sat down in the chair in front of their Captain's desk. They couldn't hear or make out what was being said but the Captain appeared nervous.

"**I know that guy,"** one of the older officers spoke up, sitting down and sipping his coffee. Most of the officers turned to face him. **"That's Zuger Kirsch, head of the King's Secret Service."**

"**The what?"** one officer asked.

"**That's actually a thing?"** another asked.

"**Yep. Their relatively new, but I've heard they're pretty well trained. Some people even call them the Shadow Operatives," **The older officer scoffed. **"I used to serve with Kirsch back in the day, when we were rookies**," He said, hunching over in his chair.** "I guess he's been through a lot."**

"**What could the King's Secret Service want with us?"** Dean asked the older officer. He just shrugged. Everyone quickly pretended to get back to work when their captain stood up from his desk and stepped out of the office, followed by the bald gentleman.

"**Listen up everyone, this here is Jack Colby, of the King's Secret Service. If you have any files or any information pertinent to the Soniso Bank case I suggest you hand it over to him. They'll be handling this investigation,"** the captain said, stepping to the side. Colby nodded to him.

"**Thank you, sir. As your captain has said; we are handling the investigation and have been visiting all the precincts in West City. We suggest you don't make a fuss about this and hand over everything you have,"** Colby explained, standing with his hands behind his back. Some of the officers didn't like his tone, and a couple of detectives didn't like having their case taken from them.

"**Come on cap'n, you can't take this from us, we're gonna crack it, we just need time,"** One of the detectives said, with his partner stepping up beside him.

"**Yeah, why should we trust this wacko?"** The other detective asked.

"**I suggest you comply otherwise we will assume you are hindering our case, and we'll have to reprimand you,"** Colby said, cracking a smirk. One of the detectives went to go for Colby but their captain moved in front of him.

"**Alright, calm down. Phelps, Gordan, sit down,"** The captain instructed his men. They complied, albeit with an attitude. Colby's smirk faded. **"The King has taken an interest since one of his scientific research labs was targeted. This isn't someone trying to steal your work, this is the King wanting to stop any more attacks from happening."**

"**So, there will be no need for you,"** Colby said.

"**Ok, settle down Colby,"** A gruff voice said from behind him. It was Zuger Kirsch. He had stepped out of the office and come to address the officers. **"You aren't the first detectives to challenge us, and you won't be the last, but I'll say what I said to them. We need your help. You just need to hand over whatever you have that will help us with this case."**

"**I'm a fair man,"** Kirsch continued, **"Prove to us you can be useful and we're not about to shunt you to the side, we'll take on-board any assistance you can offer, and you will no doubt be rewarded when we solve this case. But you have to trust that we need to be in charge of this."**

The detectives had nothing else to say. They found this man to be intimidating but he spoke with a lot of sense and experience. The captain looked to Kirsch with an apologetic expression.

"**Don't worry about your Detectives, Captain Rodriguez. They just want to be good at their jobs,"** Kirsch said, smiling as best as he could, his face morphing into a softer scowl than before. **"Thank you for your assistance."**

Colby collected anything he could from those that had any helpful files and then Phelps and Gordon had to hand over their stuff, albeit reluctantly. Dean, meanwhile, had moved the video file to a different folder, feeling like he couldn't trust these men for some reason. Again, perhaps it was his naïveté, but he wanted to prove himself, and no one else knew he had that file.

Once Kirsch and Colby had left the office, Dean grabbed his phone and headed out for his coffee break, but he had different intentions. He got down to the parking lot and jumped into his squad car and went for a drive.

It didn't take him too long to arrive at his destination, the Capsule Corp. compound. He pulled up at the main gate and pressed the buzzer on the intercom.

"**Welcome to the Capsule Corporation compound, with whom do you have an appointment?"** A woman's voice said down the line.

"**No one,"** Dean said, bluntly. **"I'm Officer Dean Aman of the West City P.D., I'm here as part of the investigation into the Soniso Bank attack."**

"**Oh, one moment please,"** She said, turning off her end of the intercom. Aman sat back in his seat, waiting for some sort of response. Then it came when the gate opened. Aman drove in, pulling up to the main building, but saw that it was the residential centre and tried to look around for the business side of things.

He wasn't given a chance to find it when three people landed close to him.

"**Officer Aman?"** A male voice said, questioning his presence. He turned around to see the sudden appearance of three young adults, standing closest to him was Noca. **"Is something wrong?"** He asked.

"**You sent that footage, didn't you?"** Dean asked. Noca scoffed.

"**I certainly suggested you, thought you might want my help,"** Noca said, feeling a little bit annoyed that he had been rejected the first time, but interested to know where this conversation was going.

"**Well, things have changed on my end, we've had the King's Secret Service come in and take over the investigation,"** Dean explained, hands on hips. Noca scoffed again.

"**Yeah, we just met some of those guys over in Satan City, they don't seem eager to collaborate. Do they have the video?"** Noca asked. Dean shook his head.

"**No, I kept that,"** Dean confirmed, Noca's brow furrowed.

"**Have you shown it to anyone else?"** Noca asked.

"**No,"** Dean asked, noticing Noca's expression.

"**Why?"** Noca asked. Dean sighed and looked away.

"**Look, my pops used to bank at that Soniso branch, and I grew up not too far from that area. He's been going there ever since he worked in one of the offices nearby,"** Dean started to explain, **"I just think about how he could have been in the bank that day, or on the way to the bank."**

"**You feel like you have a personal reason to investigate this?"** Pan suggested. Dean looked to her and nodded. **"Well, you don't have to work alone, is there no one you can trust to help."**

"**Look, at the moment, I'm just a beat cop, I tried to help you out by giving you my card, because it seemed like the right thing to do. Maybe I have selfish reasons for doing this too, I wanna make detective, but I also don't trust those Secret Service guys,"** Dean explained. Noca nodded, thinking about what he thought upon seeing those people. He looked to Pan, and she seemed to have a confident expression.

"**We have another piece of information,"** Noca revealed, looking over to Holline and then back to Dean. Noca stood with his arms folded. **"You gotta let us help if you want it."**

Dean scoffed and looked at the girls.

"**You're just a bunch of kids,"** He said, shaking his head.

"**And I'm the world champion of martial arts, maybe the strongest person on the planet,"** Noca said, showing his own arrogant side, earning a scoff and a laugh from both Pan and Holline. Noca ignored them. **"And I don't just limit myself to fighting on a stage, if there's a bigger threat here I want to help stop it."**

Dean saw Noca's intensity, then looked to Pan. Her demeanour changed and she shared that intensity. Holline seemed a little flakier on the matter, but she was more than willing to help out.

"**I guess I don't have a choice, you have information, and I need it,"** Dean said, holding out his hand for Noca to shake. Noca did so.

"**Seems like we have all the information, right now,"** Noca said with a smirk.

"**I'm still an officer of the law,"** Dean said, pointing at Noca. The Saiyan held his hands up. **"What do you have?"**

Noca turned to Holline.

"**We have the names of the three people responsible for the attack in Satan City, and the number plate of the vehicle they were using,"** Holline said, listing off things on her hand.

"**And the identity of the man in the video,"** Noca finished. Dean took out his notepad.

"**Ok, so what are their names?"** He asked.

"**Joji, Yaiko, and Sofia. Both Pan and I fought against the last one in the tournament,"** Noca said.

"**And the guy in the video was Arthur Füksaké, he was an employee of Alpha Industries,"** Pan mentioned, remembering that detail from the day they first saw the video.

"**Alpha, the company that rivals Capsule Corp.?"** Dean questioned, looking to Noca.

"**Don't worry, this isn't a rivalry thing, I've had a run-in with Alpha tech in the past and it wasn't great, so either they have someone on the inside that has some pretty terrible intentions, or this is something running through the whole company,"** Noca said, showing that even if it wasn't a rivalry thing, he still most certainly held some sort of grudge. Dean nodded and turned to Holline.

"**What was the license plate number?"** He asked the red head.

"**K41-SC13,"** She said, watching as Dean walked over to his patrol car and got in. He started to type the number into the computer. Noca and crew rushed over to see what information would show up. It seemed to be searching through a database of all the vehicles and stopped on a picture of the very car that Holline had seen. **"That's it!"** She exclaimed.

"**It says this car is registered as…"** Dean stopped, scoffed, and shook his head. **"A company car for Alpha Industries."** Dean got up out of the car and closed the door. **"This is getting suspicious."**

Noca looked to Pan and raised his eyebrows.

"**It's silly of them to use a company registered car, right?"** Pan questioned, clearly realising it was a stupid idea and only helped further Noca's idea that Alpha was involved and maybe behind it all.

"**I'm more intrigued by the fact that that means those three were working for Alpha and considering what tech we've seen used before…"** Noca said, trailing off, but Pan picked up what he was putting down.

"**That means that they're not naturally that strong, they're enhanced…"** Pan mentioned. Noca nodded, looking back to Dean.

"**Do we have enough information to pay Alpha Industries a visit,"** Noca asked.

"**I do, yes,"** Dean mentioned, **"But you are civilians, I can't have you guys waltzing in there with me. It won't look right."**

"**Not even as a representative of Capsule Corp., the company that manufactured the bank's security system. I can pretend I'm head of Capsule Corp. security. Which I'm very capable of being…" **Noca mentioned, hoping it was something.

"**It's not proper,"** Dean said, shaking his head.

"**Look, I have a lot more suspicions about Alpha at this point. Encountering their tech, we've had strong fighters try to attack us under the influence of their enhancements, multiple times, we had one of their representatives at our school, and he's made himself suspicious in the past**…" Noca explained, talking about Teki.

"**We can try it, but if they don't want you there, I have to listen to them,"** Dean explained, **"I can ask all the questions."**

Noca nodded.

"**Thanks,"** He said.

"**Time to pay them a visit,"** Dean said, getting inside his car.

* * *

_WOAH! Sorry I was away for so long. Things got rough in the world, didn't they? I hope everyone still reading this story is keeping safe and well, and anyone not reading this story... well I hope you're ok too. I've had a lot happen in my life recently, I moved, which was huge, I lost work and found more work, and rewrote all of my first two stories, which took FOREVER. But that's done now and I very quickly got back to writing this story. In fact, I am releasing this on Sunday 25th October and I literally wrote it all on Friday 23rd October._

_I also have a new plan going ahead with how much writing I do, so the chapters should be coming your way much faster than before. This is going to be just like it was in the early days, I hope. I have a newfound motivation to keep this story moving forward and I've only come up with more ideas in the time I've been away._

_I hope you are still reading and enjoying this story! If you have anything to say leave it in a review or send me a PM! But please, if it's negative, offer some constructive criticism, don't just tell me what you don't like, suggest ways for me to make it better! I'm looking for feedback, not hate._

_That's all for now. Chapter 5 will be coming soon! I finished writing it Saturday night and plan to release it in a week, perhaps? Maybe two. We'll see how things go._

_Thanks again, everyone! Much love to all!_

_OH also, the rewrites of Saga 1 and 2 will go live someday, I don't know when. I gotta proof-read it all first. You'll know when they'll go live though._

_Ok, seeya!_


	5. Chapter 5: Alpha Industries

_**Chapter 5: Alpha Industries**_

Driving to the Alpha Industries HQ in East City wasn't going to be an easy feat, especially when the starting location was West City. They had to take one of the police capsule jets, and just as had been previously agreed, only Noca would accompany Officer Dean Aman. Although, Dean continued to express his concerns over taking a civilian along for an investigation, it wasn't right, it could disrupt the investigation and cause issues with the West City P.D., especially if the heads at Alpha were unhappy about it.

The entire journey was tense because Dean couldn't shake that worried feeling. Noca, on the other hand, was relaxed and focussed. As far as he was concerned, all that mattered was the evidence they had against Alpha. He was starting to think this investigation would be solved sooner rather than later.

The journey to East City was a quiet one, other than Dean mentioning his concerns. Noca was about to make small-talk, and Dean was clearly anxious about what could come of him following his initiative. The worry that he would get in trouble with his superiors was beginning to set in, but he knew that there was a possible positive outcome.

The Alpha Industries compound was different to that of that Capsule Corp. one. The buildings were more square-shaped, no domes. There was a big road that led all the way up to the main gates. Along the road were many trees, huge trees. Beautiful flowers and bushes lined the pathway. After the main gate the road split into different directions. To the left would take you to the underground carpark, and to one of the research centres, which appeared to have a visitor centre, and a showroom for some of their tech. To the right, it looked like there was a very nice hotel, and it almost resembled a residential area. Apparently, many of the employees would stay on-site.

Capsule-Corp. was certainly the more successful of the two tech giants, but Alpha seemed to have more people working for them, and they appeared to be a bigger company based on their compound. Capsule Corp. were definitely more of a family-based company that liked to work alongside other companies.

The main building of the Alpha Industries compound was definitely the most interesting. It was very tall, and very wide. The building was curved, looking like one of those curved televisions from the front. The windows were reflective, and you could see the sky. The building practically blended in with its surroundings.

Dean made an effort to contact someone down on the ground from his radio, making them aware of their landing. He was designated a spot and flew there, landing quickly. As they stepped out of the jet, both Noca and Dean were mesmerised by the size of the building. It was pretty magnificent up close, and oozed fancy. Noca scoffed as they walked along the path towards the main building.

"**I guess Alpha are the show-offs,"** Noca mentioned, chuckling. Dean shook his head, ignoring the nineteen-year-old Saiyan.

"**When we're in there let me do the talking,"** Dean said, taking on a commanding role. Noca shut himself up and nodded, but as Dean walked on ahead Noca couldn't help but crack a smirk.

They entered the main building through the large automatic sliding doors, and they walked into the big open reception area. There was a desk located at the end of what seemed like a very long walk. There were two big fountains on either side of the two new arrivals. There were more big doors that probably led further into the offices and labs, and elevators that climbed to the highest floors of the building. There were also some staircases and elevators leading up to some of the higher levels.

It was very elaborate, even for the part of the compound that was typically off-limits to pedestrian visitors, and the general public. Unless of course it was part of the tour. No, this was for the employees. Noca looked up all around, noticing some amazing sculptures and statues, some of which were of robots. Apparently Alpha were making progress in robotics as well. Although, Noca had never seen an Alpha robot.

Dean didn't notice Noca was falling behind and walked right up to the reception desk. There were four people sitting behind the desk, and they all looked friendly and accommodating. Thanks to his uniform they all instantly recognised him as police.

"**Hello Officer, how may Alpha Industries help you today?"** A pretty blonde woman asked, flashing him an endearing smile. Dean cleared his throat and leaned on the counter.

"**I'm Officer Dean Aman of the West City P.D., I'm here as part of an ongoing investigation in the recent attacks on West City, and Satan City. I would like to speak to someone with authority here,"** Dean said, putting on his best detective impression. If it wasn't for his uniform maybe he could actually get away with it.

The woman was still smiling but she seemed uncomfortable for a moment, unaware of how to actually deal with him. She turned to look around and caught the eyes of another woman. Older, with tied back brunette hair and wearing glasses. She sighed and walked over, her heels clapping against the ground.

"**What is it now, Courtney?"** The brunette asked the blonde. Courtney motioned towards Dean. The woman looked up and held herself stronger than Courtney did in the face of the law.

"**And how may I help you, Mr…?"** She asked, practically looking down her nose at the man. Dean cleared his throat again.

"**Officer Dean Aman,"** He said, emphasis on the word officer. **"I would like to speak with someone who holds authority here, I have some questions regarding the attacks on West City and Satan City recently,"** Dean explained, sounding as professional as he could. **"Your name, please?" **He asked.

"**My name is Karen, head of customer interaction here at the Alpha Industries main HQ,"** She said, proud of her position.

"**Ok, Karen, reception manager,"** He said, writing it down in his notes. Courtney couldn't help the little smile that crossed her face. Karen huffed and turned away.

"**I will fetch for someone immediately,"** She said, walking over to the phone and dialling for someone. Dean turned and saw Courtney's smile.

"**I should write your name down too, that's Courtney, the cute receptionist,"** He said, smiling back at her. She seemed to blush a little bit and giggled. Karen walked back over and didn't look pleased with Courtney. **"She's been very helpful today, you've got a hard worker here,"** Dean said.

"**Someone will be down to speak with you soon. We have a waiting area over there,"** she said, pointing towards some chairs by the fountain. Dean looked up and saw an Elevator behind the reception was descending.

"**I think I'll wait just here,"** He said, leaning against the counter again and continuing to write something in his notepad. It was as Karen walked away again that Courtney moved a piece of paper close to Dean.

"**That's just my phone number,"** She said, brushing hair behind her ear. Dean smirked at her and she seemed embarrassed. **"In case you have any more questions…" **Sheadded, awkwardly. Dean took the piece of paper and pocketed it.

"**Thank you, Courtney,"** He said as the elevator door opened and out stepped a man. He had shoulder length brown hair that was brushed behind his ears, was wearing a light grey suit, with no tie, and a pair of glasses. He walked forward with a certain swagger and confidence. Dean composed himself as the man approached him.

"**Hello there, my name is… Noca?"** The man trailed off, noticing the Saiyan standing admiring the fountain. He turned quickly upon hearing his name and saw Teki. He immediately changed his composure, sort of feeling like he was seeing an old ally, or acquaintance, but there was also that new suspicion. The teenager approached the man.

"**Teki, good to see you again,"** Noca said, walking over to greet the man. Teki took Noca's hand into a firm handshake and seemed almost excited to see him, and Dean noticed that.

"**And you. What brings you here?"** Teki asked the Saiyan. Dean stepped up.

"**Unfortunately, I bring him here… I brought him here,"** Dean said, correcting himself and shaking his head. That was stupid. Teki chuckled.

"**You're with the police, Noca?"** Teki asked, looking down at Dean's badge. **"The West City police, Here in East City?"**

"**Well, not exactly, but I'm assisting their investigation in a small way,"** Noca confirmed.

"**Ah yes, of course,"** Teki said, standing back and acting sombre. **"Those attacks. It is terrible, is it not?"** Teki continued, shaking his head.

"**Well, we're not just here to talk about it. I have some questions for you,"** Dean said, making it known that policework came first. Teki smirked and nodded.

"**Yes, that must be, we can speak in my office. If you would follow me please,"** Teki said, walking back to the elevator. Noca and Dean followed. The journey in the elevator was awkward and quiet but Dean had to clarify some information.

"**What is your name and position here?"** Dean asked.

"**My name is Teki Kusanagi, I am the Chief Operating Officer for Alpha Industries,"** He said, with pride. Dean stopped writing for a second and thanked the Gods that he was standing behind the man. He didn't want to show any signs of weakness, but he didn't expect to talk to someone so important within the company's structure. **"I'm sorry our President couldn't meet with you; he has been engrossed in his out of work activities recently."**

"**No worries, you're a good person to talk to,"** Dean said, turning to Noca wide-eyed. Noca smirked.

"**So, Noca, what are you up to, now that you're the martial arts champion?"** Teki asked, making small talk.

"**Actually, I'm head of security at the Capsule Corp. compound,"** Noca lied, making sure to maintain his cover for the investigation. Teki chuckled.

"**That's quite the position for someone so young, now I see why you're here,"** Teki said, his laughs fading out.

"**Oh, you do?"** Dean questioned. Teki didn't say another thing as the elevator stopped and opened up into a large office. Apparently that elevator went right to his office. Who knew? Teki stepped out and walked to his desk, sitting behind it right away.

"**Please, make yourself comfortable, let me know if you'd like any refreshments,"** Teki said, offering up his hospitality.

"**No thanks. If you don't mind, I'd like to get to the questions,"** Dean said, sitting down and taking out his notebook. Teki motioned for him to go on and glanced over at Noca to see how he acted, or what he had to say. Nothing for the moment. Dean was ready to start. **"Do you know somebody by the name of Arthur Füksaké?"** Dean asked.

"**No, it doesn't ring a bell,"** Teki said, his brow furrowed.

"**He was an employee here at Alpha Industries. Thanks to some security footage we received from Soniso Bank we can confirm that he was involved in the attack,"** Dean said, revealing some information. He wasn't sure how quickly he should reveal things, but he was mainly just trying to gauge Teki's reaction to the information.

"**That's awful, and you say he was an employee here? That's terrible,"** Teki said, sitting back in his chair, looking genuinely shaken to hear the news. Noca's brow furrowed.

"**He was an employee, and if he wasn't dead, he still would be,"** Dean followed up. Noca looked to his new ally, wondering why he just dropped that on the table.

"**He's dead? Oh, that's horrible,"** Teki said, leaning forward and reaching for his data-pad. **"Do you mind if I look him up on the system?"**

Dean motioned for him to do what he needed. Teki did and looked over the information he could find on the employee.

"**Says here Arthur was low level, worked in one of our visitor's centres in the city, no living relatives,"** Teki said, tutting and putting down the pad. **"So sad, to see one of our own go off the rails."** He sat back in his chair. **"So, that's why Noca is here, because of the security footage. Capsule Corp. installed the security there?"** He asked the Saiyan. Noca nodded.

"**There was also a vehicle caught at the scene of the attack in Satan City. We have people trying to locate it right now, but I thought that maybe you could help us,"** Dean mentioned. Teki perked up, looking intrigued. **"Not only was it one of Alpha's own designs, it is still registered as a company car."**

Teki scoffed.

"**That's strange. Could Arthur not have been the one to have been registered to drive the car?"** Teki suggested. Dean shrugged.

"**I thought maybe you could look that up on your data-pad, and show me,"** Dean asked. Teki agreed and opened the pad and passed it to Dean.

"**Just enter the license plate number and all the information will come up,"** Teki said.

Dean did that and scrolled through the information about the vehicle. The same image popped up that he had on his police computer, showing that it was in fact the same vehicle. He scrolled through the information of previous people to have used the company car, but Arthur's name was not there. The last person registered to it was a man by the name of Daniel Garrett. His contact information was there also. Dean made a note of that and handed the pad back to Teki.

"**No Arthur,"** Dean said, closing up his notepad and pocketing it. Noca was watching Dean out of the corner of his eye, wondering what his next intention was. **"Say, are you a fan of martial arts?" **Dean asked. Noca knew where it was going.

"**Well, I certainly watched the recent tournament, how Noca had his ups and downs and eventually came out on top,"** Teki said, sounding very enthusiastic about the Saiyan's achievement. Noca smiled weakly and nodded.

"**Then you would have seen his semi-final match?"** Dean questioned. Teki turned to Dean, still with half a smile, accompanied by his furrowed brow. **"Noca faced off against a young woman by the name of Sofia. She was accompanied by two friends at the tournament as well, what were their names?"** Dean questioned, turning to Noca for help.

"**Joji and Yaiko,"** Noca confirmed. Dean snapped his fingers.

"**Thank you,"** He said, turning to point at Teki. **"Do you know them?"**

"**I saw them fight, yes?"** Teki said, glancing to Noca.

"**No, do you know them?"** Dean asked again, putting more emphasis on it. Teki seemed tense and chuckled.

"**No, why would I?"** He asked.

"**The fact that they were using an Alpha registered vehicle when they attacked one of the King's research centres in Satan City, causing serious damage and killing a man, links them to this company,"** Dean said, taking on an attacking stance. Teki held his hands up in front of him.

"**Look, you're making a lot of accusations, and from what I can tell, you're not a detective," **Teki said, taking on his own attacking stance. He placed his hands on the desk on stood up. **"Now, I have answered all of your questions, unless you have anything else to ask, or anything to charge me with, I suggest you leave, before I speak to your superiors. And bringing a civilian with you, just how bad at your job are you?"** Teki questioned, smirking and shaking his head. **"Please, if you wouldn't mind."** Teki motioned to the door and sat down again.

"**Thank you for your time,"** Dean said, feeling defeated, and like a failure. He turned and walked to the elevator. Noca followed.

"**And Noca,"** Teki called out, Noca turned back. **"I look forward to seeing how your power is utilised in future. After all, you have so much of it,"** Teki said, chuckling and turning his back to them to look out of the window behind him. Noca narrowed his eyes at Teki but stood in the elevator. The doors shut and it descended.

Teki remained in his seat, in silence, and then turned around quickly, smashing the data pad down on his desk and standing up. He pressed a button on the phone. It rang a couple of times and then someone answered.

"**Yes sir,"** A woman's voice said.

"**Karen, please let Mr Oliver know I am on my way,"** He said, calmly, and hung up the call. He dropped back into his chair, took his glasses off and rubbed his temples. **"This is silly…"** he muttered to himself, getting back up, tidying himself up and walking to the side of the room, where there was another elevator. He stepped in, and it ascended.

Meanwhile, Noca and Dean stepped out of the elevator and walked out into the lobby area again. Dean looked to Karen, giving an awkward nod and then his eyes fell to Courtney who simply raised her hand to her ear, her fingers shaped like a phone and she mouthed the words 'call me.' Dean smirked as he walked through but once outside that dropped away and he was mad.

"**That was a terrible idea,"** Dean said, looking to Noca. **"We didn't have enough to go on, what have we learned?"**

Noca was speechless, he tried to answer, hoping to find a positive, but nothing came out.

"**The only thing I picked up on was that Teki guy being really interested in you, so much so that as soon as you showed up, he was so excited,"** Dean said, rambling as he walked towards his jet. Noca followed quickly.

"**Like I said before, their tech has been used to try and kill me in the past. Hell, it was not long after Teki showed up at my school that it happened," **Noca said, trying to make his point that he believed Alpha to have something else going on. **"They know what their weapons can do… of course he would pretend not to know. And besides, we have the name of the last person to have that vehicle. Can we not check that out?" **Noca asked. Dean scoffed and shook his head.

"**I can, you can go home, kid,"** Dean said, walking to his jet and getting in, taking off immediately. Noca stood with his hands on his hips and cursed before taking off and blasting towards West City.

Back inside the building, Teki stepped out of his elevator, into another very large office. No one was around that time and Teki walked up to a bookshelf, touching a lamp that had been displayed on the shelf. It glowed with a green light and the bookshelf slid open. Teki entered as the bookshelf door closed behind him. Teki walked into a laboratory like room, but only with one main table, a big tank, and some computer screens.

"**Sir, we have some developments,"** Teki said, standing awkwardly. The man standing at the table, working on some sort of mechanical torso turned around, revealing himself. He was an older gentleman, about average height, with neatly combed silver hair. He was wearing grey suit trousers, with clean black shoes, a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, with his red tie tucked inside the shirt so it was out of the way. He grabbed a rag and wiped his hands.

"**What is it now, Teki?"** The man asked, sounding a little miffed with being disturbed while working on something. He tossed the rag on the table and folded his arms. **"Did the boy give you trouble?"**

"**No, Omega, sir,"** Teki said, nodding to his boss. **"But he and a police officer had quite a bit of information on us." **Teki said, his serious expression softening into a smirk. **"Your plan may work…"**

"**You doubted me?"** Omega said, chuckling and turning around.

"**But it does mean that the authorities could end up with substantial evidence against us,"** Teki explained.

"**How so?"** Omega asked.

"**Someone got sloppy at the bank and allowed some footage to leak, revealing one of our employees. And your… trio of misfits… they were recognised and left quite the mess in Satan City,"** Teki elaborated. **"I hear even those mysterious Shadow Operatives are involved."**

Omega's ears perked up and he turned around, he did seem a little unhappy that time.

"**They may have gotten what you wanted, but both of these operations, these attacks, haven't been as clean as you hoped, sir,"** Teki said, still trying to sound submissive while delivering a harsh truth. Omega scowled and turned around. He growled and slammed his hand on the table.

"**Summon those three immediately,"** Omega ordered, waving Teki away. Teki bowed his head slightly and walked out to carry out the order. Omega looked to his right, and the big tank filled with liquid. **"Are you the only one I can count on?" **He asked the tank. It bubbled slightly.

About half an hour later, Teki was standing behind Omega's desk, which, much like Teki's, sat before a giant window. The elevator at the front of the room opened and Joji, Sofia, and Yaiko emerged. Yaiko his normal nervous self, hands in pockets, head down. Sofia was standing up straight, looking composed and ready, although she was anxious. Joji was just angry, fists clenched, face scrunched up in a glare aimed right at Teki.

"**What is this about?"** Joji asked, shouting at Teki. The COO of the company remained silent. The bookshelf door opened, and the trio turned to see what was happening as Omega stepped out, followed by Shai. Another competitor from the tournament who, after receiving a card from Sofia, decided to join Omega's ranks, after working with Dazir it was an easy transition to make.

"**Thank you for coming,"** Omega said, sounding kind and welcoming, as he sat behind his desk. **"Now, what the fuck happened?"** He asked, his demeanour changing. None of them answered and Omega tensed up. **"Shai, tell me where you went wrong on your mission."**

Shai stepped forward.

"**I lost my focus when I entered the vault allowing the bank employee to kill Agent Füksaké, meaning that his identity was compromised," **Shai said, standing still, his back straight, like a good soldier. **"Which means that Alpha Industries could be compromised."**

"**A small oversight on your part, easily brushed off by us somehow proving that he was perhaps crazy, or acted of his own accord,"** Omega explained, looking to the trio, smirking. **"That's why we hire people for this operation if they have no prior connections to others."** Omega sat forward, glaring again. **"However, you three caused such havoc and got yourselves recognised, while driving an Alpha Industries vehicle, giving the authorities enough evidence to link some things together."**

Omega sat back in his chair, allowing space for someone to speak up.

"**They acted slow,"** Joji said, pointing at the other two. Sofia turned to glare at him.

"**You barrelled in and started a fight with Yaiko and then smashed the place up, killed a man, and then blew it up!"** Sofia shouted in defence. **"All you had to do was keep a damn lookout and if you had done your job then maybe we would have been clear!"** Omega raised a hand to silence them both.

"**Yaiko, what say you?"** He asked, looking to the boy. Sofia's demeanour changed and she looked at her ally. Yaiko froze and gulped.

"**Um… we… it didn't go to plan,"** Yaiko muttered, **"We messed up. I'm sorry."**

Omega chuckled and stood up, walking around the table towards Yaiko. He put an arm around the boy.

"**You remind me of someone I had working with us back in the day. A good man, one of the best,"** Omega said, acting quite sombre, shaking his head. Sofia was watching Omega, unsure of his intentions, but knew that he wouldn't have a positive effect on Yaiko. None of this was positive, but it was their jobs. **"You will all do better, next time."**

"**You mean we have another assignment?"** Joji asked, stepping forward, excitedly. Omega turned to face him.

"**Yes, possibly the most important one yet. You get to head out to Satan City, cause some more havoc. Now that Noca is aware of our involvement, we shall make it exciting for him and those Shadow Operatives?"** Omega explained.

"**You mean we get to fight him, properly?"** Joji asked, clenching his fists.

"**Yes. I would go as far as to say, you can kill him,"** Omega said, placing his hand on Yaiko's shoulder again. **"Although, I would like to speak to you alone first."**

Yaiko looked up to Omega and then to Sofia. She looked away, hoping that Omega wouldn't pick up on any sort of connection between the two. He frowned upon friendships among the team. It was strictly business. Not that Yaiko was her friend, obviously.

"**When you do this job though, make sure not to involve anything that will trace you back to us. That means no vehicles, no weapons, just yourselves and your own power,"** Omega said, walking towards his desk, leading Yaiko to one of the seats. Omega then sat down behind his desk, opposite Yaiko. **"Teki will inform you of the rest. Now go."**

Everyone but Yaiko and Omega left the room and descended in the elevator. They stopped two floors above Teki's, which was where the living quarters of anyone involved in the secret missions was located. There were some of the members of the attack on Soniso bank there. They appeared annoyed when Shai informed them, they wouldn't be needed on his next mission. He had a new team to lead. Joji didn't like being referred to as part of Shai's team. He tried to make it clear it was his team.

Sofia just went to sit alone, close to the elevator so she could wait for Yaiko. She didn't want to believe that Omega would tell him now. She was well aware of the intentions they had for Yaiko and over time she had grown too fond of the young man that she was starting to go against the plan. She would keep following orders like a good solider though.

Eventually, Yaiko returned, seeing that Sofia was waiting for him, but he glanced at her and rushed the other way, towards his own room. Sofia stood up and went to follow after him. She didn't think she would be the one to deal with the aftermath of what Yaiko just learned, but she had to try and keep him focussed. That was her mission.

She entered Yaiko's room and saw he was sitting on his bed, head in his hands, and he was shaking, crying. Sofia moved towards him gingerly and placed a hand on his shoulder, but he swatted it away and turned away from her. He faced the wall, curled up in the foetal position. She wanted to tell him it was ok and comfort him, that's what her heart was telling her to do. However, her mission told her otherwise. He couldn't know that she already knew.

"**What is it, Yaiko?"** She asked, softly. She realised the tone she took and shook it off. **"You have to be mission ready,"** She added, taking a more commanding tone, but only a little.

"**He… he told me something about my father…"** Yaiko said, sobbing into his hands. Sofia had to refrain from letting him know she knew all about this. Stick on mission.

"**What about him?"** She asked. Yaiko moved and sat up, looking at his friend. She found it too hard to see him like that but retained all her composure. **"You can trust me."** It wasn't a lie, he could trust her, she was just going to have to deceive him a little bit.

"**When he… he used to work with Omega… he had to go on a mission and…" **Yaiko mentioned, blanking on that part of the story, he was only focussed on the one main thing that Omega had put the emphasis on. **"He said that Noca… he…"** Yaiko sobbed but his face turned to an enraged glare. His power began to flare up, Sofia could feel him really tapping into what he had deep down. **"Noca killed my father."** Yaiko said, simply, the anger levelling out, as did his power. Sofia was amazed so it wasn't hard to act like it was new information.

"**What? No… that, that's horrible, Yaiko…"** She said, seeing how overwhelmed he was coming so she quickly took him into an embrace. **"You can relax, ok. We've had our orders and we're going to get him," **she assured him. Yaiko broke from the embrace and looked into her eyes.

"**I'm going to kill him,"** Yaiko said. Sofia nodded, then she took his hand in hers.

"**Keep the information about your father between us ok, we can't have Joji using it against you,"** Sofia assured him. She didn't know why she made that suggestion. Joji would always pick on Yaiko anyway, but this was different. This was Sofia's mission and Joji didn't need to know. Sofia needed to make sure everything went to plan.

Yaiko was finally put on the right path and he knew where he had to direct his power and anger.

* * *

_Hey there, everyone! Sorry I was away for so long, I didn't intend to do that, but I have managed to get up to Chapter 21 with this story, so I have plenty of chapters in the bank! I put most of my attention into finish rewrites of the first two stories, which I have done, and you may have seen that I have already updated those first two stories with the new editions! I feel like they're close to the best those stories will ever be, but obviously there's always room for improvement._

_Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are having as good a holiday season as you can, despite the circumstances of this year. 2020 has been an odd one, to say the least, but hopefully things will look up for everyone worldwide._

_I'm going back to weekly releases for at least the next 21 weeks as well, starting with this chapter, so, look forward to your Fridays having new uploads!_


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